Humanities Homework Help

Discussion topic (600-800 words with cited references)

Professor Streeter has presented research related to the gender dimensions of dealing with difficult situations: when someone is upset or emotions are disturbing, women, as a broad generalization, tend to identify the other person’s feelings and focus on them. But, again, taken as a broad group, men tend to identify the emotions, stop focusing on them quickly, and switch to problem-solving. Neither is better, says Professor Streeter; both approaches have advantages.

Instructions:

Create a post in which you describe what you see as the advantages of each approach.

1. Identify 1-2 advantages of identifying the other person’s strong emotions through empathizing and staying focused on discussing the feelings and resolving them. Under what circumstances would this be helpful for a leader?
2. Identify 1-2 advantages of identifying the other person’s strong emotions briefly, and then quickly switching to problem-solving. Under what circumstances would this be helpful for a leader?
3. Which approach comes more naturally to you? When you use this approach, how has it worked for you? What part of this approach has not worked for you?
4. Under what circumstances would it benefit your performance as a leader to try to adopt the other approach?

Peer Response With 250 word response with cited reference below

1. When the other person(s) is displaying a strong emotion, especially a negative one, it may be difficult for them to hear or understand what is being said. They are so focused on themselves, that they cannot move forward or even think. I believe it would be helpful to let them know that you understand their feelings / situation and that should bring them down emotionally to where they can participate in the conversation. Empathy will allow you to connect with the group more quickly because it allows you to show common ground. People tend to get along better with someone that they feel they have something in common with.

2. If there is a crisis or emergency, then I feel it would be better to address the emotions briefly and then move on. In that case, time is of the essence. This was the case with the COVID transition to working from home. Most companies had to deal with keeping their employees safe while continuing to run the business. There were lots of details to address and not a lot of time to do it.

3. I’m relatively new at management and an emotional person. I tend to empathize briefly and then quickly move onto problem solving as that is one of my strengths. Since not every situation is a crisis, I need to take more time on empathy.

4. I had an employee who was very upset and it caught me off guard. He did not think I was listening and he was right. I later apologized and our relationship has been better since. When speaking with the members of the team, I have to focus on listening since my natural tendency is to jump in and solve the problem without hearing their side first.