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Harnessing the positives of Anger in Building a Leader

According to Martin Luther King, “ The supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force”.   if you want to lead without fear, you have to be prepared to confront the feelings that can make you feel, well, like you’re not in total charge of everything. He has an unconventional approach to successful leadership and works as a corporate growth consultant for clients like Lenovo, Marriott, and Avne. Edinger thinks there is a way for powerful leaders to harness their rage. In an email, he advised me that being aggressive at times was necessary for becoming a brave leader. Focusing on using the “negative emotion” as a tool to inspire rather than terrify is what keeps you from being insane, according to the author.

A lot of leaders over-index on their outbursts of rage and irritation, according to Edinger, author of The Growth Leader: Strategies to Drive the Top and Bottom Lines, without being more deliberate or smart about how to use them to further their objectives. According to him, a leader must be able to forge emotional connections if they are to have an impact and motivate people, teams, or even entire organizations. The ability to manage one’s anger and put it to good use is part of it. In order to channel their rage strategically and turn it into energy and motivation, the author offers a few questions that leaders might consider, he listed them as thus:

  • “Am angry, or is there something else I’m feeling?”
  • “If you answer, ‘I’m just angry!’ try coming up with some other options. Afraid? Distressed? Worried? About what?”
  • “How can I express myself in a composed way to motivate productive action?”

A leader can create gravity and inspire improvements if they can discuss the things that are making them angry in a mature manner while using the intensity of the feeling to get their team’s attention. Edinger cites. If you let your anger express your seriousness and then work with your staff to find a solution to the issue rather than letting them handle it on their own, sharing your dissatisfaction can foster greater trust. Don’t be afraid to demand things of others and press for results in a hard or demanding manner. To finish a significant project or reach a deadline, it may inspire a brief rush of energy or a sense of urgency may influence an important outcome. That is the distinction between a manager who is solely concerned with outcomes and one who exerts constructive pressure on their staff to perform at their highest level.

I’ll return to Dr. Rebecca Heiss’s statement that “Curiosity and fear cannot co-exist,” and I’d like to add that curiosity and wrath cannot co-exist either. In reality, there are 10 C-words that characterize high-minded leaders and top performers and which are incompatible with our innate evolutionary survival instincts, such as anger, fear, anxiety, and worry. These C-words are: curiosity, serenity, clarity, connection, compassion, assurance, bravery, creativity, comedy, and celebration. These C-qualities take center stage in giving leaders a “IT” factor that makes them stand out, opens doors, and enables them to succeed in their jobs

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