If you want to be really helpful to one of your opponents, the best thing in the world that you could do is react emotionally to something that they do. Respond in the moment and really get excited, angry, or whatever, about what it is they’re trying to do.
How dare they do this?
That is the best thing that you can do to help their agenda. It plays into their hands because they’re actually the one in control. You’ve been hijacked.
If you respond, react, quickly and emotionally, you’re handing the advantage to the other side, because they’re not emotional.
They’re cool. They’re calculating. They know exactly what is going on, and they’ve probably already predicted that that is exactly how you would react.
So, if you want to become more effective, and influential, and able to defend yourself, your work, and for the good of the organisation, what is going on, you need to be able to manage your emotional reaction to what is happening in the cut and thrust of daily organisational life.
To do that you need to create this interrupt.
When something happens, pause, reflect, think, “Okay, so what is really going on here?” You can do this very quickly, but you’ve got to create that interrupt.
Once you’ve thought about what’s going on, then maybe you can react emotionally. But then you’re doing it in a controlled way, in a deliberate way. You are the one who is then in control.
If you are out of control, you are handing the advantage to other people. And that is not going to work in your interest.
Do whatever you can to maintain your equilibrium, to keep that emotional control, and to respond, or to at least react in a very deliberate way so that you can maintain that level of control and get what you want out of that exchange.
Related to Emotional Control
Ref: BIL13