What Emotions are you Communicating?
By: Thomas Waterhouse, a creative writer, inspiring speaker, and a seasoned counselor.
Thomas is the Principal of Simple E Creations, Incorporated, home of the Simple Encouragement® brand and the Simple Encouragement® Movement which exist for the purpose of speaking life to potential, bringing healing to pain, and shining light into dark places.
You can reach Thomas by visiting his site, http://www.simpleencouragement.com/ or on Twitter, @encouraging.
Thomas’s Feedback Story
Every time I walk into the kitchen and say something, my wife runs to the refrigerator and announces, “He’s…”, and then she throws the “Today I feel” frame around the appropriate M&M pose! We laugh and then just proceed with life, but the experience/feedback does anchor me in an odd sort of way.
_________________ Sonia’s ResponseThomas, thank you for sharing this story. How we feel and how others think we are feeling can be quite different. Your magnets are a great fun way for you and your wife to check in to see if reality matches perception! A question for us at home. How do our families perceive our emotional states? Are we really showing our families that we are happy and that we love them? Do we seem to be sad, stressed, or angry all of the time? Being in the moment with our families is the key message I got out of your story. The magnets are a powerful, yet simple tool for giving feedback, helping us to be aware, and increasing laughter and fun at home. Taking this story to the workplace, I came across a great article today from the Harvard Business Review called, Give Feedback With Video. It explores the benefits of using video to help us assess how others perceive our actions and if our actions convey the emotions we had intended. A great quote from the article: “Self-awareness creates self-knowledge, and inspires personal transformation.” Enjoy! ___________________ Sonia Di Maulo is a Feedback Enthusiast, Professional Speaker and Performance Improvement Consultant. Current mission: Helping people to offer and ask for powerful inspiring Feedback. Are you ready? She would love to hear from you… share your feedback stories and successes! |
If you ever met me and my wife you would likely conclude that we’re funny and strange, in a good sort of way. Here’s an example of what I mean. She found an interesting refrigerator magnet from M&M. It’s the M&M person in different poses. Underneath each pose is a state of emotion such as “Chillin”, “Thoughtful”, “Frazzled”, and the list goes on.
The state of emotion that Christy chooses is not always what I would pick. If I thought that I was “calm” and she just said that I was “irritable”, it would likely create a debate, or more likely a battle! Yet by embracing humor, we cut right through it.
March 1, 2010
Posted in: Feedback Tips
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3 Responses
Thomas your story was delightful and Sonia good valuable
feedback is always beneficial and transformational. Thank you for sharing your insights with us.
[Reply]
Thomas, I know that there is sometimes a disconnect between how we are observed, and our impression of our inner world. If you are calm, and your wife detects an edge to your voice – which may be caused by too much coffee. How to reconcile? Your option of staying humorous is a good avenue for connecting between people who care about each other. Keep smiling.
[Reply]
Lolly ~ When you appear on the scene, the “Today I Feel” frame gets thrown over “Happy”!
Yes, it’s a fun story that speaks to Sonia’s mission.
Steve ~ How did you know about the caffeine edge?!?
Yes, struggle with a loved one, or laugh our way through it… the choice seems obvious. Thank you for commenting!
Sonia ~ “He’s… Grateful” for this forum on feedback!
[Reply]
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