I used to work in a global organization where people rarely said what they meant — and never what they felt.
We had learned to code our language in niceties. Feedback became “inputs.” Tension became “misalignment.” Fatigue became “resilience.” We were fluent in corporate.
Our previous leader — a polished, poised executive from HQ — was technically competent. She ran meetings like clockwork. Smiled at the right moments. Took notes.
But in one-on-one conversations, she’d undermine people.
Question their value.
Reassign projects without explanation.
She didn’t shout — she erased.
We stopped speaking up. Stopped trusting each other.
The culture wasn’t “toxic.” It was something worse: cold, polite, and quietly corrosive.
I started waking up with stomach aches before work. So did half the team.
The new leader arrived quietly. No big fanfare.
He listened before speaking. Remembered names. Asked about our kids and sick pets. He said things like,
“I want to understand what it’s like to work here — really work here.”
And then he scheduled something unusual: a two-hour team session.
No PowerPoint. Just chairs in a circle and one question on a flipchart:
“How are you feeling?”
That question… landed in the room like thunder in a library.
At first, silence. Long, awkward silence. People shifting in their seats, avoiding eye contact.
I remember one colleague — let’s call her Rachel — crossing her arms tight across her chest.
Then, someone spoke. Then another. And suddenly...
The stories started pouring out. People spoke about being sidelined, not feeling trusted, not being heard. Nods spread across the circle — some cautious, some relieved.
Then — suddenly — someone burst into tears.
It came out sharp. Unexpected. Not a tear gliding down a cheek, but a full-body release.
The room froze. The leader looked stunned. We all did.
Silence followed.
No one knew how to hold it.
A tissue was passed. Someone cleared their throat.
And just like that, we moved on. But the energy had shifted. Something sacred had cracked open — and we didn’t know how to protect it.
Looking back, that moment didn’t have to be damaging.
It could have been held with care:
“Thank you for your honesty. Let’s pause. This is big. And it matters.”
Instead, we let discomfort drive the room back into its shell.
The openness we had fought to reach... quietly collapsed.
“When we fail to support emotional expression at work, we don’t avoid disruption — we just delay the cost.”
There’s a fine line between openness and overload.
Without safety, even vulnerability becomes performative. Some felt heard — but others felt ambushed.
We needed more than a heartfelt prompt. We needed a container:
Otherwise, emotion becomes a liability instead of a lever.
Mission won't save you - but emotional leadership might
What if we had done it differently?
What if we had used feelings not as a way to reopen old wounds — but to reimagine how we wanted to work?
We could have asked:
Instead of “This is what happened to me,” we could have heard:
We could have named needs without naming names.
Shifted from judgment to patterns.
From venting to vision.
That session could’ve been a reset.
A new emotional contract.
But we didn’t have the right container.
It wasn’t about bad intentions. The leader was trying.
But good intentions without a framework can lead us into dangerous territory.
At Bee’z Consulting, we bring tools and frameworks that create that scaffolding:
These tools let people meet beneath the noise — at the level of real need.
They turn emotion into a resource, not a risk.
If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting and thought,
“That could have been something… but it wasn’t,”
you’re not alone.
We all carry emotional maps at work. Most of us were just never taught how to read them.
But it’s not too late to learn.
Let’s build a culture where meetings don’t end with stomach knots. Where emotion isn’t feared, but guided.
Where your team doesn’t just meet — but truly meets.
Want to bring this into your team, your clinic, your boardroom?
Let’s explore what’s possible — together.
👉 Start the conversation with us
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