Emotionally Charged: How to Lead in the New World of Work

A captivating blend of cutting-edge scientific evidence and real-world stories providing leaders and managers with proven and practical strategies and tools for navigating today's emotionally taxing workplace.

Broad changes have dramatically disrupted our workplaces and increased the emotional demands on leaders everywhere. Leaders now must support their teams' mental health and burnout (while managing their own), build trust with and motivate a remote and diverse workforce, allay employee fears of obsolescence while driving the integration of new technologies like AI, and demonstrate bottomless sensitivity and compassion while still delivering results at a relentless pace. No wonder leaders are burning out. Emotional labor is a daily unrecognized burden leaders carry and can have significant costs for their health and performance over time.

However, achieving high performance and fulfillment without compromising your well-being is possible, and Emotionally Charged shows you how. Dina Denham Smith and Alicia A. Grandey debunk myths and equip you to handle emotionally loaded work events, from preparing for high-stakes scenarios to managing curveballs and conflicts, supporting distressed employees, and recovering effectively after being drained at work.

Blending real-world cases from leaders and evidence-based insights, Emotionally Charged will help all leaders--from front-line managers to C-Suite execs--manage the new work landscape. Anchored in the science of emotions, Emotionally Charged will equip you with practical strategies and tools to lead successfully and thrive in the new age of work.

Dina Denham Smith is an executive coach to senior leaders and teams at premier brands such as Adobe, PwC, Gilead, Sephora, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Netflix, and numerous high-growth companies. She coaches, speaks, and delivers high-impact workshops internationally. Prior to coaching, she was a management consultant and held executive roles in private equity and the marketing technology sector. Denham Smith has written over 60 articles for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Forbes on leadership and career success and is frequently featured in international media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Newsweek, and the BBC. She holds an MS in Organizational Psychology and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Alicia A. Grandey is a distinguished professor of industrial organizational psychology at Pennsylvania State University. An internationally recognized expert on emotional labor and diversity, she has published a book on emotional labor and over 60 scientific articles that are ranked in the top 1% for impact among business and management scholars. She is an award-winning researcher and teacher who shares her expertise with leaders and their employees in workshops and broadly via media outlets such as WorkLife with Adam Grant, The New Yorker, National Public Radio, The Guardian, Newsweek, CNN, ABC, and BBC, and in articles for The Conversation and Harvard Business Review. She holds a PhD in psychology from Colorado State University and is a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science.