Early in my career, I got labelled a ‘hot head’ by one of my bosses. My colleague Katherine remarked that I was a bit of a ‘loose cannon.’ Such are the joys of being a ‘low restraint’ leader. I was never afraid to call out the elephants in the room and let people know what I thought and my bosses praised me for being a ‘straight shooter.’ Unfortunately, being low restraint is also highly correlated with coming across as emotionally immature. I’ve worked hard over the years to get a grip on that behaviour which comes so naturally to me. One of the game changers in this area has been the practice of meditation and quite simply just breathing. You see, when you get emotionally charged, a deep, purposeful breath will slow you down, put you back into your prefrontal cortex where all that good critical thinking happens and help you hold onto those IQ points we all so desperately need. It’s like our Moms said: take a deep breath and count to 10. Truly a simple game changer for those of us who carry an extra large dose of passion and an extra small dose of restraint.
#leadershiptruth
