Episode #90 Be A Thermostat
Our workplace, household, and organizational cultures don’t exist in a vacuum, but they are created. This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Russell Catania explore what it looks like to be leaders who positively impact the environments around us.
Show Notes
When I come home each day, I don’t know what the mood of the home is going to feel like. Do I adapt to the mood if it’s a little bit tense? Or do I actually begin to turn it and adjust the temperature and the mood?Dr. Michael Brown
Three Problems
- We often spend more energy conforming than we invest leading by example.
- It is difficult to address dysfunction in an environment when we are judging that dysfunction rather than empathizing with it.
- We are not the best versions of ourselves when our emotional temperature is too hot or too cold.
Five Principles
- We can choose the emotional temperature in our private world regardless of the emotional temperature outside.
- We have the power to disrupt a dysfunctional environment with our very presence, to change an unhealthy culture with our choices, and to reverse negativity with our words.
- Peer pressure can be a powerful force for change when we provide positivity and perspective.
- Calmness and contentment can be just as contagious as complaints.
- A thermostat leader motivates others rather than merely attempting to cheer others up.
Three Practices
- Honestly evaluate yourself by considering, “Do I embody the negativity around me? Or do I address it?”
- Take a few deep breaths before entering each new environment to reset your emotional temperature.
- Create weekly and monthly rhythms of affirming, celebrating, and expressing appreciation for others.
In This Episode
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