How to Use Composure to Succeed at Work

Would you like a technique to help keep your emotions and communications in check during meetings? In your minds eye, imagine yourself getting ready to present at an important event then your phone rings, you answer it, and you end up hearing some really bad news. What would you do to compose yourself? You’re on in 5 more minutes. That type of scenario is real, I’ve experienced it and so have a lot of other individuals. Bad news BEFORE a presentation is challenging enough, but what about something that triggers your emotions negatively DURING an important meeting, perhaps by a  colleague saying something upsetting or that makes you feel angry. What can you do to keep your emotions in check? First, remove the emotion and instead consider what's being said. Avoid taking it personally and clarify the meaning with a question. And an effective technique is to focus your mind on something in the room that is factual, e.g. look at the wall and silently tell yourself what color it is, or count the number of people in the room. This will reset your brain, giving you a chance to calm down while keeping your emotions, and more importantly, your REPUTATION intact. Whether you feel triggered in a sales call, performance review, interview, or team meeting you only need to “act cool” for a few moments before the feelings will pass. Use the "brain reset" technique and you get to keep your shining reputation! #communicationtraining #leadership #emotionalintelligence

Imagine standing at the pinnacle of your career, having achieved a coveted spot in the MIT Executive MBA program, only to be blindsided by one damaging piece of anonymous feedback in a 360 leadership evaluation: "Angelique needs to stop acting like a petulant child!" 🤬Angry and embarrassed, my first reaction was to ignore it. When my MIT-sponsored executive coach, who was reviewing all of my leadership assessment data, asked if I wanted to address it,  I said, “No. I know who wrote that. He just has it out for me,” 🤔But the more I thought about it, the more I had to admit there might be some truth to his comments.  A few months later, I brought it up. 🙄😤“You know what? I think there might be something to this feedback. Sometimes I get so frustrated at work that I roll my eyes or huff in exasperation.” While I think it is OK to get frustrated at work, I don’t like having these visible reactions that make me seem like I’m not in control of my emotions. And if I’m honest, in those moments, I don’t feel like I’m in control of my emotions, either. “I can see how these reactions leave a negative impression on my colleagues, so I would like to spend some time working on it.” So we did. And it changed everything. With my coach’s help, I was able to hone my ability to regulate my emotions and reclaim control even in the toughest of situations. I took what she taught me, and I put it into a step-by-step process that I call The Poker Face Playbook. ➡️Whether you roll your eyes, yell, slam doors, or burst into tears, uncontrolled displays of emotion can hinder your ability to feel confident and your ability to appear confident. Leaders need both, so if you struggle to keep your composure, you might try this process: 1️⃣Brainstorm Your Tough Situations. 2️⃣Develop an “Enjoy/Dread” List by reflecting on Why these situations impact you. 3️⃣Develop a Rescue Plan of strategies you could use to help you through. 4️⃣Test Out Your Rescue Plan. 5️⃣Debrief. 6️⃣Develop a One-page Summary of Your Plan for Reference. 🌟Get the detailed playbook and my personal examples in the newsletter: How I Learned to Keep My Composure In Tough Situations. 🔗Link in comments. #innovation #entrepreneurship #engineering #leadership #management #personaldevelopment