Emotions are the glue that connect people who follow us and ourselves. The most important question you can ask yourself every morning as a leader: What do I feel? The first question I ask senior leadership when determining their coachability is: How do you tend to express emotions?
Head Coach Bill Self, who coached the University of Kansas to a win in the Final Four this year must already know how to keep his extrasensory perception high. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear what he said to his team when they were 15 points down at halftime. However, it was probably more about the emotion he put into his words that led to the big win.
Whether it is revving people up or calming them down, our ability as leaders to manage our own emotional state plays a key role in successful leadership. As entrepreneurs wanting to grow our businesses, the words we use are far less important than the enthusiasm and passion with which we say them. The degree to which we can project high positive energy to our followers is now shown in research as a powerful component in the management of people.