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Anger and management don’t mix. Most managers know that, of course, but sometimes they find themselves out of control and dismiss or minimize the impact on themselves and others.
“Anger reduces leaders’ effectiveness. Essentially, employees spend time and emotional energy trying to make sense of their leaders’ anger,” Julian Barling, a professor of leadership at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and Simon Rego, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, write in The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Workbook for Leaders. Dr. Rego, during his undergraduate studies at Queen’s, took a psychology course from Prof. Barling.
One research study by other academics found when leaders had angry expressions, swore or were demeaning, it led to their staff becoming angry at them. “Employees were much more likely to reciprocate by making fun of or being rude to their leaders – hardly the behaviours that build leader effectiveness or a productive team environment,” the two professors note.
While leaders might use anger to get their employees’ attention or improve their performance, employees view anger as inappropriate or an overreaction, harmful or even worthless. They view angry leaders as less competent, less warm or less likable.
“Would you be motivated to go above and beyond to make your organization thrive if you worked for a leader who was constantly angry? Probably not! In situations like this, people are more likely to seek revenge and retribution,” they write.
The nature and amount of anger makes a difference. It is more counterproductive when the anger is disproportionate to a given situation or becomes excessive or uncontrollable. Low levels of anger and assertiveness can result in leaders being perceived as weak, while high levels can mean leaders are perceived as hostile and aggressive. Moderate levels of anger and assertiveness, on the other hand, can at times be seen as appropriate.
Righteous anger over someone’s ethical violation might even be approved but anger over someone’s incompetence tends to backfire, a study found. “Why the difference? Reacting with anger to a lack of integrity not only signals to employees that such behaviour is morally unacceptable, but it also increases the perception of the leader as effective. Reacting with anger to incompetence not only upsets employees, but it also causes them to perceive the leader as ineffective,” they say.
If you want to shake your anger, they suggest you consider using techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy (often better known as CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) or the mindfulness approach of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Each provides strategies and techniques to understand and change anger-provoking thoughts, regulate your body’s response to feeling angry and decrease your anger-driven behaviours.
CBT is based on the premise that our thoughts, emotions and behaviours are interconnected. “Anger typically is triggered by the interaction between an external event and our internal thought processes. These processes include our rules for living – beliefs about how people should or should not behave – which shape the way we interpret external events and drive our responses to perceived injustices or frustrations. In other words, to feel angry, we have to believe that someone has broken one of our rules for living,” they explain.
The emotional response, of course, is accompanied by physiological activity that magnifies the impact and increases the difficulty of regaining control. CBT techniques can help you change the way you think about the triggering event and become better equipped to manage your emotional and physiological responses, allowing more self-control and flexibility.
Toward that end, they ask you to reflect on how you have experienced a leader expressing anger toward you in the workplace and the impact on your feelings toward that individual and your productivity. As well, how do you express your anger in the workplace? Does it affect your employees and their productivity? Does it improve your leadership quality or decrease it? How do you know?
As well as those general thoughts, identify what triggering events – in the workplace or other areas of life – have you noticed tend to spark feelings of anger within you? What are the typical thoughts you have when you are angry? Where do you experience the anger in your body? What do you typically do when angry?
The next step, cognitive restructuring, requires you to identify and challenge irrational or maladaptive thoughts that contribute to your anger and replace them with more rational and balanced ones.
“Remember: it is not what other people do or do not do, but rather your thoughts about their actions that make you angry! Because you cannot control how everyone around you behaves, you are left with changing the way you think if you want to feel less angry,” they say.
Emotion regulation comes next, enhancing your awareness of anger and the physiological response that goes with it, improving your ability to respond in healthier and more effective ways. Mindfulness, progressive relaxation of muscles, deep breathing or a time out are four common techniques.
Finally, behavioural skills training can teach you new ways of coping with anger-provoking situations, so that you will be able to adapt and respond appropriately when you feel angry. In particular, they point to assertiveness training and problem-solving for dealing with anger.
Anger is messy and unwelcome – for you and those you lead. Through cognitive restructuring, emotion regulation and behavioural skills training, you can become a more effective leader.
Cannonballs
- There’s something surreal about being lectured on purpose while your workload doubles, notes consultant Ghassan Karian.
- The three hidden blessings of a bad boss, according to University of West Florida assistant professor of business Timothy R. McIlveene, are they provide a masterclass in what not to do if you were a boss; they can be a catalyst for change, making you courageously confront truths about your job situation you had been previously avoiding; and they improve your capacity for emotional intelligence and resilience.
- Employee training pays off twice for companies, communications specialist Ben Rand says. He points to a study of a 16-week upskilling program that found frontline output rose 10 per cent, while help-seeking emails dropped from the now better-equipped employees, freeing their managers to focus on strategic work.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.