Quote-A-Day: Day 171

Nothing wrong with wearing your #heart on your sleeve, as long as you put it back in your chest from time-to-time.#QuoteADay #Day171 #edchat

As leaders, learners, and heck, as people, we need to be emotional.  Showing our emotions is something that keeps us human, and allows us to better get to know our community and ourselves.

Those we work and live with need to see us be emotional from time-to-time.  We have to exhibit a range of emotions that convey to others that we are no different from them.

However, being a leader requires some emotional restraint.  While we should comfortably wear our hearts on our sleeves, we have to remember to put them back in our chest form time-to-time. 

Leaders are expected to be both emotional and emotionless, depending on the time and the situation.  We need to be able to exhibit joy, sorrow, pleasure, and pain, while at the same time remaining stoic when the situation requires it.

This isn’t easy, as a fairly emotional person such as myself will tell you.  That being said, I’ve learned to regulate my emotions to fit the scenario at hand, if for no other reason than to make sure I don’t add to the stress that my community feels.

What about those situations where our bodies tell us we need to be emotional, but our minds implore us to regulate ourselves?  In those situations, I tend to allow my emotions to be released in another location. 

Maybe I vent about what took place with my wife, maybe I watch a movie with my older daughter, maybe I go for a run, maybe I meet up with a friend for a drink, or maybe I work outside around the house.  These are just a few of the steps I’ve found help me to keep my emotions steady, without having to bottle up additional stress.

Humans are emotional organisms, and an important part of building a community requires the exhibition of emotions.  That being said, leaders need to understand that we can’t be emotional (at least on the surface) all the time.  The stakeholders we work with need us both to cry with them, and serve as a shoulder for them to cry on.