Feelings are meant to be expressed
Emotions shape workplace culture – whether we acknowledge them or not.
FEELINGS ARE MEANT TO BE EXPRESSED
Emotions shape workplace culture – whether we acknowledge them or not.
Why WE Need to Take Emotional Culture Seriously
Most companies pay little attention to how employees are, or should be, feeling. They don’t realise how central emotions are to building the right culture.
Emotions shape workplace culture – whether we acknowledge them or not.
Most organisations spend significant time articulating their values, behaviours, and leadership frameworks. However, a significant gap remains overlooked: the role of emotions in shaping performance, engagement, and risk.
In their widely cited Harvard Business Review article Manage Your Emotional Culture, business psychology researchers Sigal Barsade and Olivia A. O’Neill made a compelling case:
“Most companies pay little attention to how employees are – or should be – feeling. They don’t realise how central emotions are to building the right culture.”
The reality is this: even the most robust values and behaviours will fall flat if an intentional emotional culture doesn’t support them. And when emotional culture is ignored, organisations often see higher burnout, reduced discretionary effort, poorer teamwork, and, ultimately, compromised business performance.
SO, What do we mean by “emotional culture”?
Unlike cognitive culture, which focuses on what people think, know, and believe, emotional culture is about how people feel and how freely those feelings can be expressed.
It encompasses the positive emotions that drive creativity, collaboration, and trust, as well as the negative emotions that, if left unacknowledged, can erode psychological safety and engagement.
Barsade and O’Neill’s research highlights real-world case studies that illustrate the impact of emotional culture in action:
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A culture of joy at Vail Resorts improved both employee morale and customer experience through rituals and visible leadership modelling.
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A culture of compassionate love (care, empathy, compassion) at a long-term care facility led to lower absenteeism and stronger team performance.
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A culture of fear on a U.S. Navy submarine was transformed into one of trust and accountability through participative leadership, improving both morale and mission outcomes.
These examples are not anomalies. They demonstrate that emotional culture is a strategic lever for performance.
How CAN YOU Surface – and Strengthen – YOUR Emotional Culture?
One practical way to explore emotional culture is through the Emotional Culture Deck, created by Jeremy Dean at riders&elephants. Used by organisations around the world, the deck prompts teams to identify the emotions they want to feel at work – and those they don’t. It’s a deceptively simple tool that opens up honest conversations about what helps people thrive, what gets in the way, and how culture is experienced on a day-to-day basis. Teams use it to build shared norms, set expectations, and strengthen connection – not through slogans, but through stories and lived emotion.
Most organisations ignore the emotional culture of their teams – and that’s a dangerous blind spot. Emotions drive human behaviour, and if we don’t lead them, they’ll lead us. Jeremy Dean, Founder of riders&elephants
Why IT matters for HR and executive leaders
As leaders, we are culture carriers. What we model gets mirrored. What we permit – or ignore – becomes normalised.
Three critical practices can support the development of a healthy emotional culture in your organisation:
1. Make space for emotional expression
This doesn’t mean turning the workplace into a therapy session. But it does mean normalising conversations about how people are feeling, particularly during periods of uncertainty or change. Tools like the Emotional Culture Deck* by riders&elephants can create safe, structured spaces for those conversations (*ask me how).
2. Model the emotional tone you want to see
Employees take cues from leaders, formally and informally. That includes your energy, your openness, and your emotional consistency. Emotional contagion is a neurological reality. Your presence – calm or reactive, empathetic or guarded – shapes how others show up.
3. Build emotional norms into cultural rituals
Consistent reinforcement of emotional norms through rituals, language, and recognition creates stability. It also reduces the likelihood that toxic behaviours or unspoken frustrations go unchecked. Over time, these cultural reinforcements influence not just how people behave, but how they feel.
Emotional culture isn’t a “nice to have” – it’s a leadership responsibility
Employee wellbeing, team cohesion, and commercial results are affected by the emotional environment you create. As HR leaders and executives, our role in shaping this environment is non-negotiable.
This is not about soft skills. It’s about smart strategy.
So the question isn’t whether emotions belong at work.
They’re already there. The question is – what are you doing to lead them?
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JEREMY DEAN was a #CULTURE19 Conversation Leader
