Berger Leadership Blog

I've spent a lot of time in this blog writing about emotional intelligence – the ability to recognize and manage your own emotions as well as those of the people around you. This isn't an easy task, and something I personally work on daily, as there are constant forces challenging our emotional control.

However, there are some tricks we can practice that will help us manage our emotional responses and possibly save us from regret down the road. The tricks, from Insight founder Justin Bariso, include:

1. Pause. Stop and think before you act.
2. Volume. Keep your voice calm and others will respond similarly.
3. Mute. In some situations, it is best to stop talking altogether.
4. Record. While someone else is talking, really focus on listening and gathering information.
5. Rewind. Some situations and conversations need to be revisited.
6. Fast-forward. If you feel yourself losing control over your emotions, think ahead through the possible consequences of your words/actions.
7. Trailer. Allow yourself a few minutes to grow accustomed to a task before becoming frustrated and quitting.

These tricks will help keep us from acting on impulse. All of our actions are within our control and the more we practice leveraging that control, the better off we will be, and better off our colleagues will be.

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