Success impulse: Emotion eats logic for breakfast!
Behind every decision is an emotion - and only then does a rational justification follow. You don't believe that? Read the new Success Impulse and see how this is also related to leadership and business.
You may be familiar with the saying by management mastermind Peter Drucker, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". He made it clear that no strategy, no matter how good, can prevail against an opposing culture. Now here is my variation of this statement for a current occasion: "Emotion eats logic for breakfast!" What do I mean by this?
Emotion drives decisions
Well, in my workshops I always get contradiction and astonishment when I make it clear that we all make decisions 100 percent emotionally (and subsequently justify them rationally). Furthermore, the strongest drive for decisions is the avoidance or reduction of "pain", and especially of anticipated pain. And we all know that pain is completely emotional.
Ambition and pleasure always come second when making decisions. Logic comes third (if at all). Salespeople and leaders need to know this. By the way, these relationships apply just as much in B2B as in B2C.
The mechanisms behind emotional decisions
These facts, which have been proven by countless studies, are currently receiving stark and sad confirmation from the Corona virus and the decisions associated with it. Even in Switzerland, shelves with pasta and rice have been emptied out of fear - unbelievable! Also many of the public discussions are highly charged emotionally.
What does all this have to do with you as a leader and with business? Quite simply, the mechanisms that become visible here can also be applied positively to your business and leadership at any time if you want to move people to action.
How emotions can be used for practice
In other words, load messages with emotion to get people into action! How to do that? Here are three levers:
- Near. The more immediate the perceived threat (or pleasure gain), the stronger the emotional reaction. This also applies to positive stimuli: If they are very close to oneself, a predictable reaction occurs that is often completely irrational.
- Peer pressure. When more and more people believe in the same danger, the actual danger becomes almost irrelevant. The same applies to a bright future. The collective belief of as many as possible in the threat or the positive future moves mountains. You can use this for any change initiative.
- Momentum. Collective behavior is influenced more strongly the higher the speed of the threat coming at people - or the positive future emerging. This is why it is so important to generate high momentum in change programs.
History always has exciting lessons in store for us. It is those who can read and use these signs who are more successful. Good luck with that!
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch
