One of the core components of positive leadership (which facilitates exceptional performance by creating psychologically safe environments & drawing on people’s strengths) is self-awareness. A key aspect of self-awareness is recognising your own emotional responses, what triggers these, and the ability to manage your emotions in response to this, instead of getting caught in a negative cycle. By developing this awareness it not only supports us as individuals, but helps us lead better, and supports our organisational culture.
To both lead well, and manage our wellbeing at work we need to know what we’re feeling, why and then we can manage these emotions but learning to accept them and what we can do to in the face of them. This enables us to adapt our approach, and focus on what we are trying to achieve. But knowing exactly what we’re feeling can be challenging at times, especially when we are working on autopilot, and if we are far down the path to stress or burnout identifying any emotion can be challenging.
So, the first thing we need to do is develop our emotional awareness, this is something which you can do within coaching or therapy, but there are also tools which can support this. One I often use within my work is the emotion wheel, based on work by Dr Robert Plutchik and Dr Gloria Willcox, but it can help us in other ways too.
How the Emotion Wheel helps
Builds your emotional awareness
By identifying your core emotion, you can start to notice the emotions which sit next on this on the wheel. You can start to find the nuance, for example as you explore feelings of sadness, you might realise it stems from guilt, and beneath this shame or remorse.
2. Helps you manage your emotions.
When you know what you’re feeling, and what is causing it, you can start to manage this feeling more effectively, knowing when to utilise mechanisms which help you cope with difficult emotions versus utilising more practical, problem-solving tools.
3. Fosters self-reflection.
Paying closer attention to what you’re feeling, helps you understand what’s important to you and how you behave in different situations. This awareness in turn enables you to develop a better sense of what helps you and hinders you, helping you make better choices in the future.
An easy way to do this alongside using the emotion wheel is simply to ask yourself the following:
What emotions have come up?
What happened to trigger these emotions?
What thoughts did you have?
How did you respond?
And you might want to note these down. By doing this you can start to recognise the patterns in how different situations at work (or more broadly) impact on you, and how this leads you to behave.
But, I hear you say, there’s no time to think about how work is making you feel and act, you barely have time for lunch. I know it feels counter intuitive, but slowing down, and reflecting on these sorts of situations will make you more effective at work.
Developing your emotional awareness and reflecting on the situations which trigger strong emotions at work, helps support you in developing your psychological flexibility, (the ability to be aware in the moment, and choose the behaviour which helps you move towards your goals) which helps you not only manage the stresses of work, but lead well too.
Research has shown that psychological flexibility helps:
innovative work
learn new skills
Feeling in control of work
reduce sickness absence
proactivity
confidence
wellbeing
goal achievement
All things which support you when you’re leading a charity or non-profit organisation. But it’s not just you this will help.
The organisational impact
Our emotions are catching, and as leaders this is something we need to be mindful of, as it can set the tone for the organisation. We aren’t islands and neither are our staff, we and they will be influenced by the emotions of those around us. If as leaders we are unaware of our own emotional state and don’t take steps to manage it, our frustration, uncertainty, overwhelm and anger can spread, creating a toxic culture. But, fortunately the opposite is true too, if you can learn to manage your emotional responses, and foster positive emotions such as hope, confidence, joy and enthusiasm across your organisation, you can create a workplace environment which not only supports your staff, but strengthens the impact you all have.
If you want to explore this in more detail, my free masterclass From Overwhelmed to Confident and In Control from 12-1pm on 4th November 2026 might be for you.