Don’t Pay a Bad Mood Forward
Unexpected negative episodes can put any leader in a sour mood. No one is immune to having their attitude altered by events that unfold in an unpleasant way. The only question is how long leaders let a gloomy moment endure.
There are 86,400 seconds in each day. It’s amazing how many leaders allow 30 unfavorable seconds to cast a shadow on thousands more. Staying in a negative place is a choice. A choice good leaders don’t make.
Learning to come up for air, clear the mind and start anew after a negative episode is no easy task for some. Those with an inflated idea of how important they are, often subject others to whatever mood they are currently in.
Better leaders make it their responsibility to find a place of equilibrium before they begin the next conversation.
When a leader allows a bad mood to infect subsequent conversations, everyone knows it. The signs are written everywhere. The leader listens poorly, more critically, and often responds more harshly. They seem distracted or preoccupied with their thoughts. The somber or frustrated attitude they bring to the conversation or meeting sets the tone for whatever gets discussed.
When a leader does this frequently, everyone on the team learns to avoid real issues and problems until the dark cloud passes. Leaders who train others to respond to their moods are both controlling and crippling in their impact. The better idea is for leaders to train themselves on how to make faster transitions throughout the day.
Good leaders won’t tolerate it when team members carry a dark mood forward. They ask everyone, including themselves, to reset prior to any conversation with a fresh and curious outlook.
When it comes to moods, leading by example is job one, because every second in the day counts.
Making Fast Transitions is helping me with this. I once joined a company with a leader a few years younger than me had a red, yellow, green sign on the door to her office. It was an indicator of her mood at that time. She thought she was being helpful. It wasn’t. In a 1:1, I politely told her it was her job as a leader to always been green for her team, no matter what was happening personally. She vehemently disagreed. Six months later, I was leading that team. My first question to the team was, how do we want to move forward together as a team? The team’s consensus was, No Drama. We bought an Easy Button from Staples and anyone could press it when someone violated this rule.