Naming emotions

Owned by Eliot Muir
Last updated: Dec 12, 2021
1 min read

Actively making the effort to name emotions you think another person is feeling can be a useful tool. Why?

  • People often aren’t consciously aware of the emotions they are feeling - explicitly naming them like “I hear you feeling very angry with how long it takes to get new customers onboarded” is useful in terms of showing empathy and connecting with the speaker.

  • If you get the emotions wrong, it does give the speaker the opportunity to correct and clarify what emotions they are feeling. “No I just feel fatigued by how long it takes the team to get a customer onboarded.”

This is a technique which improves communication often since:

  • People often don’t feel heard

  • It clarifies what emotions people are going through.

    • Often with strong emotions we need help teasing out where the emotions are truly coming from