How to effectively manage your mood for better workplace performance - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / How to effectively manage your mood for better workplace performance - Introvert Whisperer How to effectively manage your mood for better workplace performance? We all have experienced days when everything seems to be going haywire in our life, right from waking up late to not reaching the office on time and getting a warning from the boss. It’s quite obvious that we are not in our best of spirits on such days, and that takes a toll on our productivity as well at work place. Some would argue that it’s quite natural. However, what if despite all this chaos, you could still be unaffected and deliver your best? Wouldn’t that be great? This post talks about the same. It’s a well known fact that how you feel has an important impact on how you work and the final productivity that you deliver throughout the day. Even researches also back this fact that moods or state of mind have direct correlation with work performance. Besides, bad mood often spreads to colleagues and becomes a contagious problem, just like happiness and cheerful mood is infectious. There are people who are genetically predisposed to remain calm and cheerful, come what may, and such professionals are a true asset to a team, as they will keep the spirits high, even during adverse times. HR professionals are always keen to select such candidates, and this quality places them at a vantage point over other candidates, keeping everything else similar. However, not all are born equal. There are many of us who fret over simple problems, become anxious and clumsy, and that affects how we think, perceive and work. This reflects in poor performance and missed deadlines at times. Does that make us a poor performer? Not necessarily. But it certainly reflects that while in the workplace there is a need for everyone to control their negative emotions, and moderate their turbulent thoughts so as to help develop a productive and positive work environment. How does state of mind affects work performance? There is conclusive evidence that proves that your current state of mind has a direct correlation with performance. According to a HBR study conducted by three researchers who were in constant touch with leaders of global companies, 94% of those leaders reported that Calm, Happy and Energized were the three most common states of mind during which they gave the highest level of performance. Thus it is not difficult to infer that CHE is the state of mind that drives highest level of performance and productivity. In an experiment conducted by scientists at University of Western Ontario in Canada, people were asked to watch funny or depressing videos to put them in different moods. A set of people watched the funny videos of comedy show “whose line is it anyway”, while the other set of people were asked to watch news reports about natural calamities and similar stuff. Then both the sets were assigned two tasks and sure enough, people having positive state of mind had performed better in at least one of the two tasks. There are many reasons why a depressing mood affects your performance. You might find it hard to concentrate on the task given or find the challenge too intimidating to even start. Lack of confidence, will power and procrastination are some other mental blocks that people having bad moods face while performing work at office. Whatever may be the subtleties, the truth is that the mood with which you start your day carries over into the work that you perform later on and affects how you deal with them. So how do you get over your mood swings, especially when at workplace? Now, when it is established that bad moods do little good when it comes to performance, there must be conscious efforts on parts of all of us to keep this from happening too often. While it is hard for anyone to prevent irritating things happening to us, controlling how to respond to them can keep our productivity isolated from these occasional negative moods. Learn few relaxation tricks Physical relaxation can lead to effective management of negative emotions. One should have few relaxation tricks up their sleeves which can be utilized in the hour of need. Keeping an upright, relaxed posture while sitting or standing, deep breathing, looking at pleasant pictures, reading or watching something funny, having a small chat with colleague are some of the techniques that really work wonders. Different people respond differently to various stimuli, and therefore you should experiment and learn what works best for you. Connect with positive people around you Being surrounded with jolly and contended individuals helps you to feel good about yourself. There are have been multiple studies that prove people often mirror the gesture of others so as to establish a better rapport with them, without even realizing it. Thus, keeping company with irritated, negatively motivated employees will automatically aggravate our bad mood and emotions. Similarly, we also copy body language and behavior of people who are more calm, happy and energized, subconsciously. Spending time with such people is a natural antidote to negative emotions that can help us improvise our performance. Keep a healthy routine Perhaps the most important defense against negative state of mind is keeping you energized and healthy through daily fitness regimes and leading a balanced lifestyle. This effectively covers your sleeping patterns, eating habits and daily exercise routines. This is a must, even when everything seems to be going right for you in terms of performance. Good habits after all help you in all walks and spheres of life. While bad moods are hard to prevent, with optimum efforts you can keep them from affecting your workplace relationships and productivity. Guest Author Bio: Saurabh Tyagi, a career and motivational author who consistently writes articles on various job related themes. This article is particularly useful for professionals applying to high stress positions like VP Marketing or VP HR as they have a hectic regime. You can follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Let me emphasize that Self-Promotion doesn’t have to be obnoxious to be effective. But, if you don’t Self-Promote you, who will? If you ever want to get ahead, you have to learn how to Self-Promote. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my video that shows you simple, yet effective ways to Self-Promote. 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