Why be the calm within the storm

“Be consistently calm – irrespective of the situation” was a piece of advice my manager gave me early in my career. The following list briefly outlines the benefits of keeping your cool at work; some obvious, some perhaps less so.

Benefits of remaining calm:

1. It’s good for your health

The negative impacts to your health of stress are well documented.

2. Calmness and clarity of thought leads to better decisions

It is very easy to fall into the trap of making decisions based on emotion, not logic.  For example, no matter
how much effort or money has gone into a project, if the future benefits do not exceed the current and future costs, then the project should be immediately cancelled.

3. Your staff members are more likely to inform you of issues

If your staff members are fearful of your response to bad news, they will seek to hide issues as opposed to raising them so that they can be properly addressed. What you don’t know, can definitely hurt you.

4. You will gain respect

The ability to make calm and considered decisions in stressful situations will gain you respect. I used to work with a colleague who, while reasonably competent, was excessively nervous at work. Unfortunately it depleted the confidence his superiors had in his abilities, which ultimately impacted his career progression.

5. It’s something you can take pride in.

Given that so few people actively control their emotions, achieving this feat is worthy of great pride.

Although this is only a brief summary of the benefits of staying calm at work, I hope that it is sufficiently convincing that you now aspire to be the calmest person in the room. Be sure to subscribe to this blog so that you receive my next post on the strategies that I employ to manage my emotions.