Emotional Hijacking - When emotions take the lead.
Emotional hijacking occurs when your emotions become so intense that they take control of your ability to reason. Negative or positive feelings can bring it on, often impairing decision-making.
How Does Emotional Hijacking Negatively Affect You?
Emotional hijacking can hurt both your work and personal relationships. Here are some of the ways it might affect you in the workplace:
When you are feeling overwhelmed and out of control, this can cause you to act in ways that you are not proud of. This can include raising your voice, being short or rude to those around you, and hijacking the situation.
When a person experiences emotional hijacking, their body reacts by releasing adrenaline and cortisol. This can cause stress both in the short-term and long-term, regardless of how serious the situation is.
People around you will notice when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed. This can undermine your credibility and damage your relationships with those around you. People will be less likely to seek your help or consider you for future opportunities if they don't trust your ability to remain calm and composed. This can have a negative impact on both your everyday life and the broader organizational culture.
Increasing your emotional intelligence (EQ) is a great way to combat emotional hijacking. Developing EQ doesn't have to be complicated; simply gaining knowledge about how emotions work and tracking how you feel can help increase your emotional intelligence—five dimensions of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, social regulation, and motivation.
Self-awareness and self-regulation are key to managing emotional hijacking, as they are components of emotional intelligence that you can work on improving. Enhancing these two aspects will help you gain better control over your emotions.
Be aware of your emotions and recognize when you are stressed or angry. Note what times of day this happens, such as during a frustrating meeting or in the afternoon when your blood sugar is low. Consider if it could be related to the people around you if you are not feeling particularly favourable in the morning. Keeping track of these patterns will help increase your emotional intelligence and prevent emotional hijacking.
Take a break and refuel. Once you figure out what sets off your emotions, do whatever you can to fix the problem. Doing so will help you stay in control rather than just reacting. Go outside for some fresh air, get a snack, drink some water and spend 10 minutes stretching - all of these things can help you relax and put your feelings in check.
Practice demonstrating understanding and compassion. Set a good example for your team! Showing the kind of behaviour you'd want to see from others will help create a better work environment. If people see you demonstrating emotional awareness and staying calm, they may also be inspired to work on their emotional intelligence.
Move Forward Without Emotional Hijacking
Emotional hijacking is an every day and, unfortunately, common experience. The good news is that just by reading this article, you have increased your understanding and awareness of your behaviour.