Emotional drama creates a vicious cycle. Someone becomes agitated about something or takes a comment personally. They vent about it — likely to more than one person — who takes on some of the emotion and creates their own round of expression. The whole routine is a huge time suck for all involved.
Drama rarely resolves anything. At the end of the emotional outbursts, the initiator is usually drained, time is lost, so they are under more pressure, and others find themselves in the same situation. It’s a very inefficient way of living.
No wonder that one of the key components of Emotional Intelligence is self-regulation. The more senior your role, the more it behooves you to find private ways of releasing the stress. Parents don’t serve their children well by screaming at them. Employees don’t want to see their bosses crying after meetings. No one likes to walk on eggshells around colleagues for fear of a blow-up. Residents shouldn’t see their officials acting like grade school bullies.
If you feel the emotions swelling up, excuse yourself and clear your head. Consider the time you save in apologizing, regretting, second-guessing, and backtracking and you’ll realize that it’s best to simmer down in private.
