YOUR CAREER SECRET WEAPON?

Bulldozing your way to success via powerplays and pushiness? So last century. A new breed of work gurus are schooling students in how to use their emotions to get ahead

Stepping on a colleague’s toes to achieve an easy win at work, interrupting a junior during a meeting, moaning to your deskmate about task-avoiding team members… It all sounds very Mean Girls but, until recently, bullish power play was touted as the quickest route to career success. By exercising our assertiveness muscles and strong-arming our way up the ladder, we were supposed to climb a steady ascent to The Top. Right? Wrong, say a new breed of career coaches – part therapist, part work guru – who believe cultivating our emotions is the new path to success in work and life. And they’re on to something. The trope of pushy aggression at work does seem terribly passé. You don’t need to shout louder than everyone else in the room to get your voice heard, and while brash might win you plaudits in the short-term, crafting sustainable success is about developing our emotional faculties. This shift, says Susan David, psychologist and author of Emotional Agility, can, in part, be attributed to the rise of women in the workplace. ‘Traditionally, emotions have been associated with being female,’ she explains. ‘Historically, both women and emotions have been sidelined but, as women are rightly given and taking more of a voice in society, the full spectrum of human experiences are becoming not just more acceptable, but essential.’

What’s more, experts predict the indispensable employees of the future will be those who harness their emotions. With research predicting that

30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be computerised, robotics threaten to eliminate thousands of jobs. But the ones at the highest risk (statistics show that telemarketers, data entry clerks and cashiers are most vulnerable to technological change) show a stark difference to the roles most likely to survive (psychologists, occupational therapists and curators); it’s going to be roles that rely on qualities that can’t be replicated by technology – empathy, humility, creativity – that win out.

It’s time to usher in a new breed of savvier, more sensitive coaches and approaches.