CM 124: Liz Fosslien on Emotions at Work

Which emotions should we bring to work and which ones should we leave at home?

When it comes to most workplaces, it’s a difficult question to answer. That’s what drove Liz Fosslien and her co-author, Mollie West Duffy, to write their book, No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. It’s a compelling guide for validating and managing our feelings in the workplace.

In this interview, Liz challenges the myth that emotions and work don’t mix: “This traditional notion that you can check your feelings at the door when you come into a job is biologically impossible.”

She also shares advice on how we can handle our feelings, for example: “…when you are making a choice, write down everything that you’re feeling and really look at each feeling and say, is this because of something that I’m thinking about in this choice, or am I just feeling all of these irrelevant things…”

Liz is a strategy and design consultant who’s worked with organizations like Salesforce, Ernst & Young, and the Stanford d.School. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Life Hacker, the Freakonomics blog, and on NPR.

Episode Links

@fosslien

@molliewest

Martin Seligman

Emotional Agility by Susan David

Curious Minds interview with Susan David

Steven Pinker

Emotional contagion

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