If you think you don’t switch emotional gears, think again. We are fairly certain that you have had the experience of feeling a strong emotion and then almost immediately changing either the way you were feeling or the way you were acting. For example, do these or similar situations seem familiar?
- You are yelling at a colleague or a family member and the phone rings. You pick up the phone and say, calmly and pleasantly, “Hello.”
- The team is discussing all the problems on a project that will delay the product launch by two months, something the president has said is unacceptable. Everyone on the team is very depressed. The president walks into the meeting room, ready to be briefed on the status of the project. You rise to begin the presentation.
What were your emotions at the time? How strong were they? Were you able to change gears? How did you do this?
You can practice the skill of changing emotional gears to help you in other situations. Here are some steps you can take:
- Think of an emotionally charged situation.
- Picture the situation, and picture yourself feeling the emotion.
- Think of an interruption of that situation, such as a phone call, a knock on the door, someone calling your name or walking into the room.
How do you feel when this happens? What are you able to do to change the way you are acting?