I remember seeing this catchphrase somewhere when I was young. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but bizarrely, the visual of this sign appeared in my mind recently when I had a bad experience with a vendor.
The short version is that I bought a service which was represented one way during the sale and was completely different when I used the service. My fault, because the very, very, very fine print (which you couldn’t read until you purchased) excluded what I thought I was buying.
I got mad. And then, for whatever reason, that slogan popped into my head. What was intended as a cute, innocuous saying was a trigger for me to let it go.
The better we are at managing negative emotions, the higher our level of emotional intelligence. Martin Seligman, the “father” of positive psychology and author most recently of Flourish, talks about how optimism is one of a handful of things we can control. Thinking good thoughts has a positive impact on our health while being negative can have a downward spiral effect on our well being.
When something goes wrong on the job, being mad doesn’t change anything other than stress out everyone around you. Good leaders are mindful of the impact of how they react when something “bad” happens.
This isn’t to suggest that you don’t correct the action in question. It means that you rise above whatever irritated you and handle it diplomatically and professionally. Chances are that you will fix the problem and everyone around you will be much more productive than if they were the recipients of an emotional outburst.
I welcome your thoughts, so feel free to email me your impressions.
Have a great day!
