Fostering and maintaining a good working climate is essential for a company when facing the crisis. This was said by Jose Luis Zunni, director of ECOFIN and professor at the European Business School, within the framework of the I Meeting ‘Academia y Sociedad', organized by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra with the support of Seguros Zurich.

"In moments of increased agitation, panic often arises. A good leader is able to coldly analyze the situation, set the objectives to be achieved by his team and make the most appropriate decisions so to achieve them," he pointed out.

Thus, he emphasized the importance of the emotional intelligence for leadership. In many companies- he said - there are highly qualified teams that sometimes fail due to a lack of communication among the members or between the members and the direction of the company.  A real leader does not impose oneself on others: His team follows him because they share his values and vision of things; he is able to put himself in the place of others when resolving conflicts and he is capable of uniting everyone for achieving the same purposes."

To this end, Professor Zunni considers a proper management of emotions to be essential, because "it contributes to build confidence so that communication flows and to make everyone feel committed."

A change in work-life balance culture

Professor Zunni also stressed the fact that the companies should cover the aspects that directly influence the emotional state of their professionals, such as schedules and work-life balance. "In the more developed countries, the employees finish work at five or half past five in the evening. There is also great flexibility regarding the option to work from home. In Spain, we need a cultural change if we wish to put these measures into practice, thereby improving our productivity."

José Luis Zunni made these statements during his presentation ‘Liderazgo empresarial y gestión emocional aplicada' (Business Leadership and applied Emotional Management) in the roundtable ‘Gestión emocional y entorno laboral en la empresa' (Emotional Management and the Work Environment), the third of three planned within the I Meeting "Academia y Sociedad". This Forum, open to all citizens, was organized by the ICS Project "Emotional Culture and Identity" with the support of Seguros Zurich. The building of healthy emotional contexts, both in education and in health care and business, was analyzed during this Forum

"Liderazgo y competencias emocionales"

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