[January 11, 2016] On television I was watching the Bengals versus the Steelers football game this past Saturday in one of the important wild-card playoffs. The Cincinnati Bengals were expected to win over the Pittsburg Steelers but it didn’t turn out that way. It happens more than on the rare occasion … whether in sports, the military, business, education, or in politics, people are prone to losing control of their emotions and the results can be a problem. An old lesson is that good leaders don’t lose their cool.
This may seem obvious to the uninformed but the truth of the matter is that many leaders lose their heads when the pressure on them is high. Because their emotions got the better of them, several Bengal players stumbled into avoidable errors that cost them the game. The Bengals coach never gained control over his players despite a history of his players’ lack of sportsmanship on the field.1
“Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.” – Philosopher Baltasar Gracian
People observe the behavior of leaders closely and are prone to emulate them. Years ago I had a commander who would throw his helmet to the ground in a sign of frustration when things went wrong for him. I was just a junior officer but asked myself, “is this what leaders do?” Ultimately I decided that throwing a helmet was not my style of leadership; good thing.
It’s hard to keep your cool when everyone around you is losing their head but that’s what good leadership is about. It requires self discipline. It requires self control that most people don’t possess except those who are tempered under conditions of great difficulty. It should be no surprise that those who have emotional resilience will best thrive under such difficulties and challenges.
I’ve witnessed people I thought were among the very best, lose their cool under unusual situations. While attending college, I observed several times my professors lose it when challenged by a student. Poet Robert Frost reminded us that education is “the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper…” Wow, was he right. In light of the turmoil at college campuses today, students would do well to read some of his writings.
The lesson? The best of leaders don’t lose their cool under any circumstances. But to achieve that level of resilience requires relevant experiences under difficult conditions.
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