Emotions in business are too often getting in the way of rational thinking… so keep giving yourself time to cool off… and read between the lines!

We’re humans and we’re emotional. Apparently the notion is that women are more emotional then men, but by watching male fans react to what’s happening on a football stadium I have my doubts. Regardless, we’re driven by emotions and I think too often we get the emotion get the better of us… and we don’t take enough time to consult our rational part of brain.

We should remember to make time and space to cool down!

Recently I had a little more time to reflect about some of my this year’s and last year’s decisions at the company and I’ve realized that I’ve been very emotional over quite a few decisions in my company… and the worst part about it all is that the emotions stood in a way of me being a better leader of the company.

Emotions will cloud your judgement.

That’s why I think my problem was I let myself act emotionally without giving myself a little time to cool off and to think things through. This is the moment when emotions clouded my judgement of the situation.

Emotions can be a compass 🧭

When I felt emotionally impacted by someone on my team, what I instead should have done, is to cool down and analyze the situation:

• why am this makes me feel the way it does?
• why is the other person acting emotionally?
• what’s behind my emotions?
• what’s behind their emotions?

Because there’s always a second, deeper meaning.

And that’s what a good leader should be up to - to uncover the second meaning behind the emotions. When someone acts emotionally it means they care about something, they’re passionate about something. As a leader I should be focused on finding what it REALLY is instead of reacting in a shallow way or acting offended. I should have known better.