As a consultant and manager, you have to keep emotion out of the picture when making business decisions. People on your team and business partners will come to you with heads of steam and be screaming for all sorts of reasons. A program isn’t in the system they need, there has been a systems failure, they can’t reach a vendor. A lot of times you have to be the den mother and voice of reason in keeping things on an even keel. Even if the issue is something that can shatter a project, generally no good comes out of screaming and yelling.
Take the same skills to heart when dealing with issues with your family or finances at home. When you feel that you are about to blow your stack, use whatever coping techniques work for you (counting to ten before saying a word, thinking of vacationing in Hawaii, etc) and then pause to think. Sometimes backing off of the situation and thinking about it for a few minutes will give a clearer answer than just answering and jumping right in.
Decades ago, I use to have one boss who always jumped in screaming and she ended up getting terminated by upper management for the same reasons her staff feared telling her when anything went wrong. Don’t be in a position to be that type of boss or parent or spouse at home!
With the economy being tough, it is easy to be jaded and angry all the time. Try not to be. It won’t help in the long run and it will cause problems in your relationships and with your health.
A simple breathing exercise where you go to a quiet spot and just try to breathe in and out for five minutes works wonders if counting to ten doesn’t help. If you can take five minutes to go outside or go somewhere out of the “hot zone” to cool off – and get the people who are “hot” out of the area for a minute that will help with their persepective as well.
Kim Greenblatt
It pays to keep cool thinking in hot times.