A thought by John Townsend from his
book, Leading From Your Gut (p. 85). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
That is a very good thing to know, isn’t
it?
John says, “They alert you that
something is going on, something you need to pay attention to and deal with.
That something may be an event outside of you or one inside. Look at your
emotions as you would the instrument panel on a car. The panel includes gauges
and indicators that provide information on things like fuel level, engine
temperature, RPM, oil level, and tire pressure. When the indicators are in the
proper range, you don’t notice them because they signify that things are going
normally. But when the indicators turn red, blink, beep, or light up, you pay
attention because things are now not normal. The indicators are alerting you
that something—usually a problem—needs to be taken care of.”
He then says, “In one of my first
full-time jobs, I drove a company car about thirty miles with the oil light on.
In my ignorance, I assumed it was like the gas gauge, and I figured I had a
while before the oil was out. But by the time I barely made it back to the job
site, the car needed major repairs. My boss was exceptionally kind to me
despite my foolishness, but he did sit me down and explain what to do the next
time the oil light went on.
“That is what emotions do for you, and
why it’s good to understand what they mean and what to do about them. They
point to a situation. Most of the time, there is some action you can take that
will resolve the situation. The result is that the emotion gradually lessens in
its intensity. Its job is done, so the emotion dissipates until the next time.”
He later says, “There are schools of
thought that say that you can simply choose to feel, or not to feel, certain
emotions. The theory is that feelings always follow our thoughts. So if you
change your perspective, then your feelings will follow suit… Sometimes that
does help us, as we grow, to become more mature and have a larger view on
things. But that isn’t always the best thing to do with our feelings. The best
thing is to first look at the meaning of the emotion, see what causes it, and
then deal with that.
“Why is cultivating this kind of
awareness important to a leader? Because your decisions must be based on as
much clarity as possible. If you don’t scrutinize your emotions, you are in
danger of losing clarity, and that can damage how you lead your organization.
You don’t want to be opposed to someone because they remind you of a person from
your past. Nor do you want to dismiss negative emotions toward someone out of
concern that you’re overreacting. You need to think through what’s going on.”
He then says, “As signals, emotions
can dispense positive or negative information. Either way, you need to pay
attention to them.”
That is very good advice, isn’t
it?
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