Being in a good mood is a part of your leadership

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One afternoon, one of my team members told me, "You seem to be in a better mood recently. A few weeks back, you looked like you had a lot on your mind." I replied, "I was thinking of a new business plan and that may have made me look like I was not in a good mood." The reality was I had multiple things going on and indeed was not in a good mood for a week or two.

This conversation made me think about the negative effect that being in a bad mood had in the office. Generally, I am a happy and stable person. Therefore, this was really a good learning experience for me. There are many negative influences. If I were to name a few critical ones, here would be some of them:

  • Team members feel reluctant to communicate, resulting in less communication among the team.
  • Unconsciously, the leader in a bad mood could make decisions based on emotion rather than logic.
  • The leader could worsen the communication with the team members because of not being in a good mood.

Ultimately, managers have more influence on others compared with independent contributors. Moreover, it is generally more difficult for team members to tell the manager that he is not in a good mood because he is not in a good mood. This can cause a lack of awareness and a vicious cycle in the working environment. This is something I want to avoid the most. So please let me share some of the potential solutions I have thought of:

  • Build enough rapport with team members to lessen the difficulty of receiving the feedback that I am acting like I am in a bad mood.
  • Proactively and periodically ask for feedback from the team members, and ask the right questions so they can speak up.
  • Understand more about yourself to recognize the signs of when you are not in a good mood.

From this short conversation with one of the team members, first, I realized I was in a bad mood, and the team members could see it. It also made me think about the negative consequences of being in a bad mood. If we flip it around, being in a good mood can enhance the perception of psychological safety and improve the work environment. Therefore, it leads to the conclusion that is the title: “Being in a good mood is a part of your leadership.”

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