Sanskriti – The Power of Emotional Awareness
Sanskriti walks into work with a smile despite a toddler, sleepless nights and back-to-back interviews. Her secret isn't a calm life — it's emotional awareness, the very first trait on the EQ side of your Winning Kite.
Have you ever walked into the office still carrying yesterday's argument? A fight with your spouse, the traffic that made you lose your temper, or simply waking up on the wrong side of the bed — and then, without realising it, that mood colours your whole day. Sanskriti has every reason to be that person. She isn't. Her secret is a single, learnable skill: emotional awareness.
In short- Emotional awareness is Trait #1 on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite — the foundation everything else stands on.
- It is not knowing you feel "bad"; it is naming the emotion, tracing its trigger, and seeing its impact before you act.
- Sanskriti has a hard life — a toddler, sleepless nights, a demanding job — yet radiates calm because she manages her emotions instead of suppressing them.
- Her calm is contagious: colleagues feel lighter around her. One aware person can steady an entire team.
- Three habits build it: name it, breathe, and journal — two minutes a day changes how you show up.
Where this sits on your Winning Kite
Emotional awareness is the very first trait on the EQ — the left — side of your Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). The kite has four sides: Success at the top (the result you want), EQ on the left, RQ (Relationship Intelligence) on the right, and PQ (Productivity) at the bottom. You rise on balance, not on strength alone. And of all 25 EQ traits, emotional awareness is the one closest to the string in your hand — because you cannot manage a single other emotion, relationship or task until you can first see what you're feeling. Sanskriti's story is what this trait looks like when it is fully alive in a working professional.
The office is an emotional battlefield
Be honest — does anyone really go to the office just to sip tea, gossip a little, and come home fresh? Of course not. Workplaces aren't spas; they're emotional battlegrounds. Your boss walks toward your desk with a serious face. A colleague questions your idea in a meeting. A customer complaint lands in your inbox. A deadline slips through your fingers. Each of these is a trigger — a small spark that tests your awareness.
When there are no triggers, everything feels smooth. But the moment one appears, that is when emotional awareness truly shows up. Do you react impulsively, or respond thoughtfully? That decision — made in seconds — determines not just your mood but your growth. And here is the uncomfortable truth I have watched play out in boardroom after boardroom: when you can't see your emotions, your emotions quietly start steering you.
What happens when emotional awareness is missing
Before we meet Sanskriti, let me show you the cost of the opposite. In Stars at India Inc. I tell four short stories that every Indian office will recognise — four talented people undone not by lack of skill, but by lack of awareness.
Rahul – the storm that spread
Rahul, a senior manager, had a fight with his wife before leaving for work. He thought he'd left that anger at home — but emotions travel. Within an hour he snapped at his assistant over a minor mistake. In a meeting he scolded a junior publicly. All day he was curt, irritable, unapproachable. By evening his entire team was walking on eggshells. One man's bad morning became everyone's bad day. That is the domino effect of low awareness — lower morale, poor collaboration, lost trust.
Pravin – the critic who killed motivation
Pravin, a team leader at a software firm, was brilliant at his job but blind to his impact. Every review became a fault-finding session; every meeting, a reminder of what went wrong. He called it "maintaining standards." His team called it "humiliation." Slowly, enthusiasm disappeared. People stopped taking initiative because they feared criticism. Deadlines slipped, innovation vanished — and Pravin blamed his team. He never once asked, "How is my tone affecting them?"
Samantha – the voice that drove customers away
Samantha, a customer service executive, prided herself on honesty. But when customers became demanding, she raised her voice and called it "standing up for herself." The company called it "a pattern." Her emotions became louder than her professionalism. Eventually she was let go — not for lack of skill, but for lack of awareness.
Umesh – the leader who lost focus
Umesh, a senior executive, carried silent stress. His father's debts kept him awake at night. He came to work tired, distracted, reactive. Meetings blurred together; decisions got delayed. He never saw that his personal storm had entered the boardroom. His lack of awareness cost him clarity — and cost the company momentum.
Four different people, one common truth: when you can't see your emotions, your emotions start steering you. Now let me show you the other side of that coin.
Meet Sanskriti – emotional awareness in action
Sanskriti is an HR professional at a tech startup. At home she has a toddler and a demanding schedule. Her husband's late shifts cause tension, and sleepless nights are routine. On paper, her life is exactly the kind that spills over into work and poisons a whole team — the Rahul recipe.
Yet every morning, Sanskriti walks into the office with a smile. She handles back-to-back interviews, manages difficult employee issues, and often works late. Still, she radiates calm. People assume she must simply have an easy life. She doesn't. What she has is a skill.
Her secret is emotional awareness. She knows the exact moment frustration is rising. She feels exhaustion creeping in before it takes over. So she pauses. She breathes. She journals before leaving home — emptying yesterday's weight onto a page so it doesn't ride into the office with her. And then she chooses how she wants to show up.
Notice the crucial distinction: Sanskriti doesn't suppress her emotions — she manages them. Suppression is a lid on a boiling pot; sooner or later it blows, the way Samantha's did. Management is turning down the flame while you decide what to cook. Because Sanskriti does this every single day, her colleagues feel lighter around her. Her calm becomes contagious. One aware person quietly steadies an entire floor. That's emotional awareness in action — feeling deeply, responding wisely.
What emotional awareness really means
Emotional awareness isn't just knowing that you're angry or stressed. It goes deeper. It is the ability to understand why you're feeling what you're feeling, to recognise how those emotions are shaping your thoughts and decisions, and — most importantly — to choose your response instead of letting the emotion choose it for you. Think of emotions as the wind. You can't stop the wind from blowing. But you can learn to adjust your sails.
People with high emotional awareness do three simple but powerful things, and Sanskriti does all three:
| The habit | What it sounds like |
|---|---|
| Name it clearly | Not "I feel bad," but "I'm anxious because of tomorrow's presentation." The moment you name an emotion, you begin to manage it. |
| Trace the trigger | "Am I reacting to what's in front of me — or carrying baggage from earlier?" This breaks the blame cycle and builds self-control. |
| See the impact | Anger leads to emails you'll regret; anxiety leads to avoidance; exhaustion clouds judgment. So you pause, breathe, and choose wisely. |
Lessons from the cricket field
Emotional awareness isn't only a workplace skill — it's a life skill, and nowhere is it clearer than on the Indian cricket field. Virat Kohli, once known for his temper, learned to channel it; in a tense 2019 World Cup match he was seen centring himself in the chaos, and that calm helped India pull off a narrow win. MS Dhoni, "Captain Cool," mastered emotional steadiness — in the 2011 World Cup final, under unbearable pressure, he promoted himself up the order and finished with composure, leading India to glory.
The counter-examples are just as instructive. Immense talent has occasionally been undone by arguing on the field and losing focus in the big moment — skill without control costs you. Hardik Pandya, criticised in 2020, chose not to react; he rebuilt, and by the next season was leading calmly, proving that reflection fuels growth. And the saddest cautionary tale is a career of brilliant potential ended not by lack of ability but by unchecked emotions. From boardrooms to boundary ropes, one truth holds: without emotional awareness, even the most talented derail; with it, even the most pressured perform.
How to build it — the Sanskriti routine
You don't inherit emotional awareness; you train it. Here is the simplest version of what Sanskriti does, which I teach in every leadership workshop:
1. Journal for two minutes before work. Empty yesterday's weight onto a page so it doesn't ride into the office. 2. Name the feeling precisely the moment it rises — anxious, not "off"; frustrated, not "bad." 3. Pause and breathe before every reactive moment: the email you want to fire, the retort in the meeting. 4. Ask one question daily: "How is my tone affecting the people around me?" Rahul, Pravin, Samantha and Umesh all failed to ask it. Sanskriti asks it every day.
Do this for a few weeks and you'll notice something: the gap between trigger and reaction widens, and in that gap lives every good decision you'll ever make. This is exactly the muscle we build in my corporate emotional-intelligence training, and it is the doorway to every deeper trait on the EQ side of the kite.
Your reflection
In every workplace, emotions are constant. They won't disappear — but you can learn to steer them. So ask yourself, honestly: Do I recognise what I'm feeling before I act? Can I trace my reactions back to their triggers? Am I aware of how my emotions affect those around me? Because emotional awareness is the foundation of leadership. It's the skill that separates reaction from response, and good professionals from great ones. When you master it, your career doesn't just grow — it steadies, and it soars. To see how this first trait connects to the other 24, and to RQ, PQ and Success, walk through the full Winning Kite framework.
Daniel Goleman put self-awareness at the base of emotional intelligence for good reason — but Sanskriti reminds us it isn't an abstract idea; it's a Monday-morning choice, made two minutes at a time.
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Avinash Chate TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc. Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is emotional awareness?
Emotional awareness is the ability to notice what you are feeling, understand why you are feeling it, and see how that emotion is shaping your thoughts and behaviour — so you can choose your response instead of letting the emotion choose it for you. It is the first trait on the EQ side of Avinash Chate's Winning Kite.
How does Sanskriti stay calm at work despite so much pressure?
Sanskriti does not have an easy life — a toddler, a demanding schedule, her husband's late shifts and sleepless nights. She stays calm because she practises emotional awareness: she notices when frustration or exhaustion is rising, pauses, breathes, journals before leaving home, and consciously chooses how she wants to show up. She manages her emotions rather than suppressing them.
Where does emotional awareness sit on the Winning Kite?
Emotional awareness is Trait #1 on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite — the KITE Leadership Framework. EQ, RQ (relationships) and PQ (productivity) together lift you to Success at the top. Without emotional awareness, the whole left side of the kite loses balance.
How can I build emotional awareness at work?
Name the emotion precisely instead of saying you feel "bad", trace it back to its trigger, and check its impact before you act. A daily two-minute journal, a pause-and-breathe habit before reactive moments, and asking "How is my tone affecting them?" build the skill over weeks. This is the core of Avinash Chate's emotional-intelligence training.
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