Subservience to Purpose: Affect Tolerance--How Great Leaders Channel Intense Emotions into Actions That Ensure Progress

By: Justin Menkes

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Synopsis: Great leaders, like all human beings, experience a full range of emotional reactions every day. They are not immune to anger, frustration, anxiety, or fear, and this fact is intensified by today's fast-paced environment. But leaders who are subservient to a purpose channel their emotions; they see challenges as stimulating and are able to react to setbacks and unforeseen events in ways that ensure rather than stifle progress. In this chapter, executive assessment expert Justin Menkes shows how you can use this skill--called "affect tolerance"--to help you manage your own emotions in stressful situations. One particular trap some leaders fall into is a sense of their own self-importance when they are challenged: Menkes shows why this is a grave error and how you can learn to manage this reflex. Case study illustrations of prominent leaders--including Jim McNulty (Parsons Corporation), Raymond Milchovich (Foster Wheeler), Chris Van Gorder (Scripps Health System), Fred Smith (FedEx), and Barack Obama--bring these ideas vividly to life. The chapter ends with practical suggestions and an exercise for improving your ability to reframe your strong emotions in a broader, more meaningful context and, in doing so, remain subservient to a higher purpose. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 5 of "Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others."