Emotions are an inseparable part of each one of us! In fact, we are driven by our emotions. Be it choosing on what dress to wear on a day or where to drive for an excursion, the decision is influenced by our emotions at that point of time. A neuroscientist Antonio Damasio proved that people with damage in the part of the brain that is responsible for generating emotions, cannot make even simple day to day decisions such as what to eat for a meal given a choice of menu!
Given that our decisions are influenced by our emotions, we definitely need an emotional intelligence to take the right decision! While triggering our emotions and influencing us to make emotional decisions is a strategy – a strategy popularly used by political parties to promote their electoral propaganda – one also needs to find strategies to avoid taking such emotional decisions!
Mindfulness is a proven strategy to improve our emotional intelligence. In the film ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) fights a battle against aliens. By accident, he gets into a time loop. Everytime he fails in the battle and gets killed, he wakes up again to the previous day. As soon as he realises this, he becomes more mindful of the mistakes that killed him and his team previously and adopts a strategy of avoiding those mistakes the next time he wakes up to the fight. Finally he and his team win the battle.
Since Decision making is a vital part of every entrepreneur’s daily business routines, being more mindful of the situation’s reality and staying connected with the team will help to take wise decisions.
by Dr. Deepika Prabhu, ITF