Feelings; they do matter

Feelings matter.  We all know it, and we experience this on different levels every day.  Thomas V. Draude is a retired United States Marine Brigadier General who retired from active duty after 31 years of service.  I have had the privilege of his mentorship for the past 20 years, and I heard him speak at the Naval Academy about the 4 F's of Leadership.  He even wrote a fantastic book about it. It’s worth your time to read it. Feelings were one of the most important elements he spoke about.

It's easy to be dismissive about the importance of feelings, because it is something we are frequently told to work past without working through them.   Our feelings and emotions make us human, and we ignore these at our own detriment.  We are frequently engaging with people in more personal ways after years of lockdowns and social distancing.  Feelings impact every part of your organizational health and productivity.  They impact the productivity of your workers, the quality of decision-making, and the relationships between team members.  Empathy and compassion require us to acknowledge feelings and emotions are important.  Any team that pretends this is not the case will fail.