I grew up with a severe fear of social engagement. Every time I sweated about an upcoming event, I would wonder how simpler and wonderful life would be without fear or anxiety. I grew up wishing I could wipe out my emotions completely.

Then I read about lobotomy. Lobotomy is an operation meant to cure depression and other mental illness. It involves cutting out parts of the frontal lobe of your brain, the ones that deal with emotions. Lobotomy took the world by storm in the 1940s and won its pioneer, Dr. António Moniz, the Nobel Prize.

But, as time passed, people began to discover the reality. Lobotomy, while “curing” patients of their emotional problems, turned them into living corpses. They were unable to focus, make decisions and have careers or family life. Soon, if not sooner, sanity prevailed and lobotomy was banned.

Managers are often taught to think with reason and throw all emotions away. “Think objectively”, they are told. But emotions and reasoning are not enemies. Rather, they are partners. Emotions give direction to our reasoning, while reasoning helps us channel our emotions.

Emotions are essential for reasoning. If your mind is a car, emotions are the steering wheel. They point us to what matters and what doesn’t. They are the motivation behind our decisions. Take away emotions, and you’d feel as excited about your son’s birthday party as you would about buying a can of milk.

Our feelings help us process information, assign value to it and make decisions. They are an integral part of every experience. We often don’t remember an experience but we recollect how it made us feel. Without emotions, our ability to think critically and act effectively is compromised.

The key to better decisions is not avoiding or suppressing your emotions. It is finding the balance between logic and emotions, and integrating them wisely. Remember this the next time you feel bad about having emotions or want to run away from them.