Self Management – How do you maintain your cool in a difficult situation? Three simple steps to practice.

A friend of mine says that Self-Awareness is like a white elephant gift. That’s because becoming aware of your behavior is useless unless you start to manage it.

Self-management is responding professionally no matter the circumstances. It’s choosing to react in an emotionally controlled manner instead of getting angry, using sarcasm, sending nasty emails, or any other nonproductive behaviors. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to do, and a lot of leaders blow it. I know I sometimes do.

It’s worth practicing because when you self-manage your behavior, you develop long-lasting and more cooperative relationships with the people around you. Leaders who demonstrate self-control and calm when things are not going well help to decrease stress and anxiety for their team.

I think self-management is the foundation of emotional intelligence. You will increase your success when you create self-awareness and then regulate your responses when you are uncomfortable.

Here are three simple techniques that you can practice to self-manage:

⭐ Practice paying attention. We often respond in a less than professional manner when someone says something that we are not expecting.

⭐ Practice intentionality. If you have a problematic meeting scheduled and know that you may become upset, create a method for controlling your response ahead of time.

⭐ Practice pausing to provide yourself time to process. Take a breath or a drink of water; count to ten before speaking or wait to respond to an angry email until the next day.

When you know you are going through a difficult situation and want to maintain calm, what techniques do you use?