Good leaders, as perceived by people, carry with them the knack to lighten up their environment with a radiant smile. Their faces reverberate with enthusiasm exhibiting their inner strength. It underlines their friendliness enabling them to strike a chord with the people around. It has become more relevant to smile-and-lead with the leadership pattern having moved from command-and-control to communicate-and-cooperate philosophy. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that smile is an essential trait to connect with the people at an emotional level.
Smile can be defined as a physical expression of the face, evoked by the intelligence center in the brain, which senses the emotional need of the body to express the person's emotional status in the face and therefore activates the facial muscles to convey the inner need of a person to connect and engage in a social network.
A person's "mood" and its "emotional exhibit", as reflected through the face, have a close relationship, which is controlled by a mechanism called "emotional intelligence", says psychologist Daniel Goleman. Research by psychologists Goleman, Boyatzis and Mckee also unearths the fact that moods are contagious and they spread like wild fire, catching people at a lightning speed. If the mood of a person, which is an unapparent and concealed inner reaction of the mind, can affect and alter the behavior of the people around, it is needless to mention the impact of a smiling or a frowning face, which are the direct outputs of various moods.
A smile plays an important role in directing and defining the behavior of people who are around an executive. It influences productivity and creativity in an organization, thereby determining the bottom line of performance. |
