At birth, you began seeking competence: competence in crawling, walking, climbing, etc. The higher you could climb, the more competent you were and the happier you felt, even though your mother may have been dismayed at how high you were perched in the three or four years old.

As an adult, your ability to perform is closely tied to your happiness and satisfaction in life.

This Blog is dedicated to helping you gain competence in three areas:
» Personal Productivity
» People Skills
» Professional development

As you increase your competence in these areas, you will become a leader on your team, with your employees and among your colleagues, regardless of your formal title. The formal designation and place on the org chart will follow as fast as you develop your competence.

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”

– Epictetus (55-135 AD) Greek Philosopher

Even in 135 AD, great thinkers recognized the effects of anger on a person’s ability to perform…on his/her competence level. When the emotion of anger controls you, your mind and thinking processes take a back seat. In this mode, high emotion, low analyzation, you may say and do things that are unwise and destroy your credibility with your colleagues, friends or family. Productivity is on hold as you deal with your emotions.

To get back in the producing, competent mode, take a deep breath and try these strategies:

1. Think back and identify why you are angry or what part of the conversation pushed your buttons. When you can put your finger on the part of the conversation that sent you over the edge, then you can work through the problem mentally and reestablish equilibrium.

2. Do something physical to release the stressful hormones built up in your system. For instance, a little anger makes it easy to clean your office and throw out the piles of stuff you never get to. If cleaning your office doesn’t make sense, then take a walk, go jogging, go to the gym for a pickup game of basektball, etc. The exercise will work the hormones out of your body and give strength to confront the issue, not just be angry.