Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt as if the temperature dropped a few degrees? Not literally, yet it just felt colder.
As if there was a drafty cloud of anxiety or standoffishness hanging in the air.
How about the other way around? You jump on a team call and you sense an instantaneous feeling of warmth, informing you that this was a space of caring and possibilities.
What you are sensing in these moments is "the mood in the room" and as a leader it is important to master the subtleties of this emotional intelligence skill-set.
Savvy leaders can quickly assess "the mood in the room" and adjust their communication style so as to best influence others.
So how do we increase our ability to consciously assess the collective mood of a group? The good news is that your body is naturally equipped with all the tools necessary to do so.
Your five senses are constantly taking in and assessing information.
Is the room loud or quiet? Do you see people alone or in groups? Even try to notice what the colors and textures of people's clothing are telling you.
Still, the greatest mood sensing tool we have is our sixth sense; some refer to this as our gut intuition.
To tap this resource the leader must focus their attention away from what they are thinking and more towards what they are feeling.
In doing so, the leader becomes attuned to the energy of the room.
With greater energy awareness, a leader can then make the adjustments necessary to maximize their personal influence.
For example, perhaps in sensing that the team's mood is one of high frustration and low energy at the end of the day, the leader chooses to abandon his initial intent of discussing the lagging sales numbers.
Pressing forward with this agenda item at this particular moment would likely result in defensiveness and bickering over who's to blame for the poor results.
The savvy leader recognizes both the importance of holding these crucial accountability conversations and the impact of mood when it comes to creating space for a healthy dialogue to occur.
There is typically never a perfect time to hold these challenging conversations, and yet there are markedly better times than others.
So what do you do if you simply can't wait for a group's mood to change? The truly skilled leader will demonstrate their ability to shift their own personal mood and be the energy that is needed at that moment.
For instance, in meeting with a disgruntled client the leader notices a heavy energy and feeling of distance between her team and the client's team.
She may even feel awkward herself as she is holding on to several "hidden" issues she has with the client.
Here, the leader might adjust from jumping straight into technical problem solving and instead deliberately open themselves up while expressing these concerns.
She would consciously shift her mood to one of authenticity, calmness, and warmth in order to be most effective.
While the client's team may vent their frustrations passionately, our leader models the energy needed to keep the relationship intact and the project moving forward.
Mastering the art of being a mood barometer is a challenging skill for even the most seasoned leaders.
Often it takes years of life experience to calibrate your personal instrument.
Yet, with enough deliberate practice, anyone can get better at this important skill that distinguishes great leaders from the rest of the pack.