The line from the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, about being professional and not taking work personally: “That is my work! My sweat! My time away from my kids! If that's not personal, I don't know what is.”
The common misunderstanding about not taking work personally is that either we shouldn’t feel negatively about what happened at work, or that it’s other people’s responsibility to make us feel better.
Both are problematic and don’t justify what it means to be emotionally professional.
Emotionally professional is about identifying personal feelings, accepting them, and processing them as personal responsibility. We then show up to address what truly matters and the real problems we are facing collectively.
Emotional professionalism accepts that things happening at work may not land well with us; it is our responsibility to process our triggered emotions. It gives us a chance to reevaluate through a centered state to address the issues and determine what needs to be done. It prevents us from blowing things out of proportion simply because of our growing, triggered emotions.
Because we value emotional well-being and remarkable work, we learn and practice to improve both.
With emotional professionalism, we’ll be able to show up, connect, and contribute, even in the most dire situations.
