This happened in the early days when I first got elected. I was doing house-to-house visits and being who I am (wearing my heart on my sleeves), I made an offhand remark about something I observed along the corridors.
Some time later, someone kindly shared with me a feedback: “you created a lot of work for some people and they are unhappy”. I was taken aback, as I don’t recall giving anyone any specific instructions to get a lot of work done from that occasion.
Looking further into it, I discovered the staff and volunteers who accompanied me that day interpreted my offhand remark (and a frown on my face) as: “Boss not happy with that thing, we better do something about it”, promptly activating a string of actions 😮
I can’t recall what “it”was now, which shows how trivial the matter was! Yet somehow my “unfiltered” expression made someone anxious enough to take action that wasn’t needed.
I learnt from this incident how easily manpower, time and resources can be triggered just by someone in a high position expressing a momentary displeasure. I learnt (thankfully early on) to be more conscious and circumspect about offhand remarks, and to be more mindful about my emotional states, knowing the very real effect they can have on people I work with.
I hope my mistakes help you avoid yours:
💡Leadership isn’t just about guiding others — it’s about self-awareness and emotional regulation.
❌ When leaders are easily triggered, it impacts the entire team – what they put their attention and efforts to, the resources expended, people’s stress levels and morale.
💡The higher you are, the bigger the impact from even the subtlest reaction from you.
✅ We can avoid wasting attention, time, resources and energy by being aware of our emotional triggers and being highly conscious of our responses.
👀 Elevating self-awareness and developing an acute sense of how I’m feeling and coming across in all situations has helped me create happy and thriving teams whilst minimizing unnecessary work and stress.
But suppressing our emotions all the time can be so harmful to our own selves and so draining! The good news is,
🧘🏻♀️Healing my inner wounds to get rid of most triggers in my life helped me arrive as a happy and joyful leader!
Healing is a superpower in leadership. Do you have a story too about how inner healing has helped you as a leader to share too?
Find out more about healing through Whole Person Coaching.
