Control That Anger!

Automotive Manufacturing & Production, Sept, 2000 by Ted Pollock

There are lots of good reasons to blow your stack; silly errors... misunderstandings...crossed signals... plain stupidity (on the part of others, of course).

But there are even better reasons to keep your anger under control. For one thing, when you are angry, you are apt to say or do things you later regret... you are more likely to have an accident... you may even come down with a raging headache. Continued anger can take a heavy toll on mind and body.

Why, then, do we keep on losing our cool? Probably because it's natural, instinctive, and briefly satisfying. And because we haven't stopped to consider how harmful it can be.

Yet, that's exactly what successful managers must do. They can't afford the luxury of a temper that makes them say and do foolish things and sour their relationships with their people.

The most important time to hold your temper is when the other person has lost his. When someone else starts to grow angry, never respond in kind, no matter what the temptation. To be sure, this will sometimes require a Herculean effort on your part, but the payoff is worth the effort; nothing to regret, nothing to apologize for, no strained relations to mend, and the respect of your people.