At That Point
  • home
  • services
  • about us
  • our thoughts
  • videos

Political leaders can use the power of emotions constructively

14/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Authored by: Dr Jopie de Beer, CEO of JvR Africa Group

People are hardwired as both rational and emotional beings. People’s ability to acknowledge their emotions, and work to understand and manage their emotions constructively and appropriately (referred to as emotional intelligence), has much to do with their success in life. This principle applies to both individuals and groups.

Emotions are highly contagious and easily affect others. This is particularly true if the emotions are intense and have been experienced over a longer period of time. It could take quite some time before rationality, reason, and “cool heads” return.

Research done by Bloomberg in 2017 refers to South Africa as “one of the most miserable countries in the world”. This is owing to high unemployment rates, slow economic growth, high interest rates, poor service delivery, and high consumer prices, amongst other things.

The sense of being miserable coincides with a time of political electioneering in the country, which could form part of a “perfect storm”, given how emotionally laden politics is. The emotional messages are intensified by the tone of voice, dress code, non-verbal gestures, innuendo, and language used by political leaders in speeches. Opposition parties are often referred to in derogatory terms and even as the enemy, to elicit emotions of distrust amongst potential voters.
 
By establishing “an enemy”, the leader elicits the powerful emotions of fear, anger, distrust, and paranoia amongst potential voters, and when such emotions are heightened enough, they could override all rationality. This kind of leadership has the potential to lead followers into chaos, as enough fear and anger can motivate people to act emotionally and irrationally.

Cambridge Analytica and Bell Pottinger are recent examples where personal and emotionally laden information was used to influence voter behavior. Understanding which personal and emotional “triggers” can push a potential voter to choose one or the other political candidate provides a powerful way to influence the outcome of an election.

However, those in political leadership who rely primarily on stirring emotions to provide them with power may be exposed when rationality returns. In contrast, leaders who can provide voters with calmness and reason whilst acknowledging emotions, which is much more sustainable in the longer term, have a greater chance of running the country successfully.
 
Emotional intelligence
The principles of emotional intelligence require leaders and voters to acknowledge their emotions but allow for rationality at the same time. This means that they need to recognise their own emotions and the impact that others’ emotions could have on them, while objectively analyzing information and checking the accuracy of the facts. This would allow leaders to consider the impact and consequences of a highly charged political message, and voters to distill the message and react accordingly.

However, a leadership approach anchored in rationality, calmness, and hope may not seem as charismatic as an approach based on hate, fear, and anger. In fact, those leaders who rely on the principles of emotional calmness, hope, optimism, trust, and reasonableness may have somewhat of an uphill battle in getting their message heard when competing against leaders using emotions as a tool.

The choice
Political leaders have a choice as to whether they use the power of emotions constructively or destructively. Voters also have the choice to be emotionally hijacked, or to evaluate the political messages from both an emotional and objective perspective, to determine whether the information they are provided with is accurate and true.

Selfish and corrupt leaders drive personal agendas and use their ability to emotionally manipulate to gain and retain power. On the other hand, ethical and emotionally intelligent political leaders understand and manage their own emotions and respect the emotions, feelings, and needs of others. Their empathy can inform how to best seek solutions for complex and difficult problems to ensure the sustainability and survival of their people.  

In South Africa, the very difficult circumstances of the past in combination with current socio-economic hardships have led to a society where anger, despair, and despondency often flares up. The intensity of these emotions has, in some cases, led to destruction of property and loss of life.  The South African society is intensely emotional and will probably remain so at least till after the next (2019) elections.

The question is how these emotions will be used by those in positions of leadership to retain emotional political power, to gain and retain voters, and what the consequences of emotion without rationality are for the future and the reputation of the country.

​To build a South Africa that is not the second most miserable country on earth, we should all expect our leaders to act with integrity and with emotional intelligence. Our success as a country and as a rainbow nation depends on it.

END

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT JvR Africa Group:
JvR Africa Group of companies consists of JvR Psychometrics, JvR Consulting Psychologists, JvR Academy, and JvR Safety. With it’s head office is situated in Johannesburg; the group conducts business nationally and across Sub-Saharan Africa. They work with test developers, consultants and academic institutions all over the world and supports a range of development opportunities and hosts events around People Development in Africa, a cause they feel is extremely important to the future of our continent.

For more information on JvR Africa Group please visit:
Website:  https://jvrafricagroup.co.za/
LinkedIn: JvR Africa Group
Facebook: The JvR Africa Group - People Development in Africa
Twitter: JvR Africa Group
YouTube:  The JvR Africa Grou
0 Comments
    Welcome to the JvR Africa Group Newsroom.

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017

    Categories

    All
    100 Most Powerful Women
    18 July 2018
    2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey
    3D Printing
    Accountability
    Angela Merkel
    Artificial Intelligence
    Aspirations
    Bell Pottinger
    Big Data
    Boss
    Business “unusual”
    Business World
    Cambridge Analytica
    Career
    Career Building
    Careers
    Company Morale
    Competent Drivers
    Complex Leaders
    Continuous Development
    Corruption
    Crime
    Dark Side Of Female Leadership
    Deloitte
    Disruptive Technology
    Diverse Society
    Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
    Dr Gorkan Ahmetoglu
    Drinking And Driving
    Dr Jopie De Beer
    Dr Karina De Bruin
    Dr Renate Scherrer
    Dr Renate Scherrerr
    Economic Development
    Economy
    Emigrants
    Emotional Intelligence
    Emotionally Manipulate
    Emotions
    Employees
    Employment
    Engineering Safety
    Entrepreneur
    Entrepreneurship
    EQ
    Ethics
    Female Leadership
    FIFA World Cup Finals
    Forbes
    Fourth Industrial Revolution
    Gap Year
    Gill Marcus
    Global Village
    Government
    Grade 12
    Hapiness
    Harvard Business Review
    Health
    Humble Leaders
    Identifying Entrepreneurs
    Industry 4.0
    Innovate
    Insufficient Infrastructure
    Integrity
    Jacob De Coning
    Job Creation
    Job Opportunities
    Jobs
    Job Summit
    Jopie De Beer
    JvR
    JvR Acadamy
    JvR Academy
    JvR Africa Group
    JvR Consulting Psychologists
    JvR Group Africa
    JvR Psychometrics
    JvR Safety
    Karina
    Labour Market
    Leaders
    Leadership
    Learning Agility
    Listeriosis
    Madiba
    Madikizela Mandela
    Managing Emotions
    Mandela Day
    McKinsey Global Institute
    Melinda Gates
    Meta Profiling
    Millennial
    Misconduct
    Motivation
    Multicultural
    Nelson Mandela
    Niccolo Machiavelli
    Optimise Entrepreneurship
    Organisational Success
    Paperwork
    Political Leaders
    Population
    Power
    Power Of Emotions
    Problem Solving
    Productivity
    Promotion
    Psychology
    Random Acts Of Kindness
    Recovery
    Red Tape
    Regulatory
    Resilence
    Road Rage
    Self-directed Learning
    Skills Development
    Skills Programmes
    Snakes In Suits
    South Africa
    Street Wise
    Stress
    Tarzan Leaders\
    Team
    Team Rebuilding
    Technical Innovation
    Technological Literacy
    Temptations
    The World Economic Forum
    Thuli Madonsela
    Toxic Boss
    Toxic Leaders
    Traffc Congestion
    Trust
    Trust In Leaders
    Unemployment
    Unemployment In South Africa
    Unethical
    Unethical Behaviour
    Wellbeing
    Whistle Blowing
    Women's Month
    Workforce
    Workplace
    Workplace Safety
    Youth
    Youth Development
    Youth Employability
    Youth Unemployment

    RSS Feed

CONTACT US

office [at] atthatpoint [dot] co [dot] za
© COPYRIGHT 2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  • home
  • services
  • about us
  • our thoughts
  • videos