Emotions are a natural part of being human, but they can get us into trouble — especially at work. At some point, each of us has said or done something we regretted later.
Emotional self-control is the skill of remaining cool, calm and collected under pressure. It’s thinking before you act. With self-control, you can moderate your emotions to best serve you in any situation.
To do it, you first need to understand your emotions. Then, you need to be able to reinterpret your experience. Finally, you can change your emotional reactions for the good.
Why is it useful?
Emotions are core to almost every part of business — from our thoughts, creativity and learning, to our ability to make balanced, ethical decisions.
And of course, we can’t form relationships without them.
That said, emotions give rise to two kinds of problems at work. The first is when your emotional response is too strong, or not strong enough. The second is to do with negative emotions.
Strong negative emotions, like anger, fear, sadness, or contempt, can put us into a “threat mindset” that turns off the brain’s Prefrontal Cortex. Without it, we struggle to think rationally and make good decisions.
When leaders show those negative emotions, they kill team motivation and performance, and prevent good teamwork.
So, grace under fire — the ability to manage our emotions under pressure — is critical to leadership. It’s also central to executive presence.
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