Help Wanted: A Team Player

From the Psychology Today

Conventional wisdom says that we should keep emotions in check when we're at work; showing strong feelings is a no-no. We often think being "professional" means curbing your thoughts and words and conforming to the office norm.

But being a team player requires reading the emotions of others—the good, bad and especially the in between. Then you can respond accordingly in order to accomplish the job before you.

Squashing your emotions in the office may be a mistake, especially in today's diverse, twenty-first century workplaces, according to researchers fromthe University of Michigan. Being impersonal and focusing solely on work can bedetrimental to productivity, says Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a psychologist at theUniversity of Michigan who has studied teamwork styles in different cultures,including the U.S. "East Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures tendto believe that social and emotional relationships are just as important at work as a relentless focus on the task at hand," he says. [Click here to read on]