Serenity Now
by Andy Molino
Seinfeld aficionados will recall an episode where George Castanza’s father keeps yelling “serenity now, serenity now!” using the refrain in an attempt to maintain his composure and sanity.
Serenity and composure are characteristics that are much undervalued and often overlooked in leadership. As strange as it might seem, leaders often fail to appreciate the full impact their actions, words and even moods can have on the other members of their team. The leader’s reaction to events is often magnified when viewed through the lens of a subordinate.
Daniel Goleman, in “Primal Leadership” (2002), observes that the climate the CEO creates among direct reports can predict business outcomes for the entire organization. Goleman estimates that in 75% of the cases he investigated, climate alone sorted companies into high versus low profit and growth. Overall, corporate climate accounts for 20% to 30% of business performance. He also reports that 50% to 75% of how employees perceive their organization’s climate can be traced directly to their leader.
In “Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method” (1966) Kenneth
Burke argues that the words we use not only describe the environment we live in, they can actually create it. He writes, “Even if a given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality.”
One of the leader’s primary responsibilities is to interpret external events for the other members of the team. All too often, leaders create ‘crises’ within their teams by the way they interpret or reflect a particular event. If the leader reflects or interprets an event as being ‘catastrophic’, team members may very well react in a manner that reinforces that interpretation and, sadly, desperate actions will often accelerate the organization’s demise. Reflecting the event as a ‘significant challenge’ rather than a catastrophe may not make the problem any easier to solve. However, problems faced in a calm and rational way have a much better chance of being solved than those approached in a state of panic and desperation.
In the face of adversity, leaders have an obligation to send messages, both subtle and direct, which motivate followers and inspire confidence; that give employees hope and reasons to continue the battle.
The dejected team captain, sitting on the bench, head down, sends the distinct message that the game is lost. The senior manager who throws temper tantrums (and sometimes objects) when things are not going well is sending the message that he or she has run out of creative solutions and is now resorting to a strategy that was successful when he or she was a toddler – hardly the kind of leadership behavior required by today’s organizations.
Pause/reflect/choose – PRC, is described by Daniel Feldman in “The Handbook of Emotionally
Intelligent Leadership: Inspiring others to achieve results.” He highly recommends executives who want to lead with greater emotional competence use PRC, a somewhat more dignified description of the old ‘count to 10’ adage:
• Pause before reacting to a situation
• Reflect on what is causing the emotions or reactions being experienced, and
• Choose the appropriate reactions that will make the situation turn out well.
PRC or count to 10 – both are easy to remember, neither is easy to execute. Serenity now!
Andy Molino is a management consultant and senior partner with the CCI Leadership Institute, based in Ottawa, Ontario. CCI offers leadership development programs for executives and trains executive coaches (www.ccileadership.com).
