Timing Is Everything: An Imprinting Framework for the Implications of Leader Emotional Expressions for Team Member Social Worth and Performance.

This article examines how the timing and sequencing of leader emotional expressions influence individual team member performance by conveying social-functional information about social worth, specifically respect and status. Integrating the social-functional approach to emotions with imprinting theory, the authors propose that positive leader emotional expressions during the early phase of a team's lifecycle imprint feelings of respect in members, which enhances performance, while more frequent negative emotional expressions during the midpoint phase—when filtered through earlier positivity—serve as constructive jolts signaling opportunities for status gains. Two longitudinal studies support this model: an archival study of 9,968 consulting team members at a professional services firm and a field study of 245 NCAA Division 1 student-athletes and 86 coaches across 20 varsity teams. Findings suggest that early positive emotional expressions have stronger positive effects on performance than midpoint expressions, and that the combination of early positivity followed by midpoint negativity most effectively boosts individual performance through social worth mechanisms.