The Third Element of Customer Experience: Ownership of Emotions

I teach undergraduates pursuing a degree in business at Muhlenberg College. It has been one of the biggest joys of my career not because I love lecturing, but because I do love hearing the success stories my students send after graduation. Muhlenberg is a fine liberal arts institution and provides an excellent education. However, I’m sometimes dumbfounded by how complex life can be as a 20-something college student. In my day, wasn’t it easier?  

As I lecture away, I can’t help but shake the feeling that my students may have more important things on their minds than the business model of integrated steel mills. If I could get inside their minds, I imagine they would be filled with non-stop, nagging questions:

• Am I going to get a good job when I graduate?
• How am I going to pay off all of these student loans?
• Am I even pursuing the right degree?
• Is the degree and vocation that I have selected going to make me happy?  
• How am I going to get through finals and sports at the same time?

And these are just the questions that I, as a parent, would want my kid to think about. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m guessing my students are also thinking:

• Am I checking my phone enough to make sure that I don’t miss something important? (Importance is relative, and while I may not find their desire to see something on social media as important, it’s critical to recognize that they do.)
• Do I study abroad? What will I miss if I go/don’t go?
• Am I dating the right person?
• Should I be dating someone?
• Should I get married? What is the right age?
• What happens if a non-flattering picture of me is posted online?
• Am I responding to my followers/friends?
• Am I going to be forgotten if I don’t respond or post new content?
• What are people going to think of the content that I post?

I’m sure that there are many more, but my point isn’t to critique the mind of a college student. My point is to highlight the abundance of emotional noise that they likely carry with them every minute. It is no wonder why anxiety and depression disorders are at all-time highs. However, this brings us to the third dimension of experience: ownership of emotions.

Everything listed above is a lot of emotional noise. This weight is likely carried by many students. As a professor, I have to cut through it all to deliver a lecture. When you own the emotions of your stakeholders, you are committing to turn the volume down on that emotional noise. You can do this by either helping to ease some of their anxieties OR by capturing their focus so well that the emotional noise fades into the background. While I would like to think that my lecturing produces the latter, the jury is still out.

When you own the emotions of your stakeholders, you are committing to turn the volume down on that emotional noise.

I do think that they would agree that constructive and thoughtful feedback on assignments helps reduce anxiety about what my expectations are going to be and, in turn, their ability to get a good grade in my class. I do think that providing easy access to one-on-one assignment help and mentoring engages students with total focus, something Muhlenberg’s business department is particularly excellent in doing. All colleges, in general, have put a lot more emphasis on their career centers and advisor programs to help own some of those emotions as well. Not to be a shameless promoter, but Muhlenberg’s Career Center is Ivy League quality and it should be no surprise that our graduates tend to do quite well out of school.

Muhlenberg has found a way to cut through the emotional noise of its students, building an engaged student body as a result. When it comes to your organization, are you doing the same? Are you building ownership bonds with your stakeholders by cutting through their emotional noise and owning their emotions?