Could You Keep Calm and Carry On?

Imagine an unexpected change happens to you at work - maybe your presentation was not well received, a proposal needs rework, the vacancy in your team couldn't be filled because of headcount freeze. Most advice available to you would focus on the positive side. What's done is done, think about the solutions, the resources you have, focus on what still could be done.

Yet as human being, could we simply ignore our intuitive emotions and be effective? Could we simply ignore what was, and focus on what could be?

Emotional Stability, or its opposite neuroticism, is one of the well studied Big 5 personality traits. It describes the tendency to remain emotionally stable, calm, and being capable of dealing with stressful situations without being rattled. Individuals low in emotional stability tend to focus on the negative consequences of actions, choices and situations.

Contrary to the positive emotionality and high level of energy in extraversion, emotional stability focuses on the ability to remain calm and flexible when dealing with stressful or negative situations.

In the ever-changing work environment, we are often compelled to undertake career exploration - searching for our identity in the career environment, exploring approaches to stakeholders, looking for new opportunities. Such processes are by no means easy, lots of challenges and rejections are waiting for us along the process.

Individuals low in emotional stability tends to adopt avoidance strategies to cope with the anxiety provoked in the process. It could be reluctance in exploring new options, unwilling to interact with others which could provide useful information, avoidance of self-reflection. What’s also common is the indecisiveness in career decisions. Since such individuals tend to focus on the negative aspects of options, they could be dissatisfied with available options, resulting in limited options to choose from. This would end up with foreclosing on an available option prematurely, which could be a vicious cycle leading to dissatisfaction and further career exploration activities.

The first step to improving your ability dealing with such situation is to understand where you’re at.

There are various scientifically validated tools available in the market to help you understand your emotional stability. For example, the Hogan Personality Inventory uses Emotional Stability as one of the scale it measures. It gives you an indication of how strong emotional stability is in your personality when compared to others of similar demography across the globe. EQ-I 2.0 measures your emotional intelligence (EQ), and provides more in-depth analysis of your EQ in 5 aspects: self perception, self expression, interpersonal, decision making and stress management.

It matters to figure out how our personality helps us handle emotion and remain emotionally stable. Our Discovery Timeout helps you understand yourself better. Check out how we could add value for you.