How willing are you to “blow up” to force overdue action to occur?

Our reader poll today asks: How willing are you to “blow up” to force overdue action to occur?

• Very: I’ll blow up whenever anything slows down unreasonably 4.04%
• Somewhat: I’ll blow up when something important gets bogged down 22.43%
• Not very: It takes an extreme situation to get me to blow up 49.77%
• Not at all: I don’t see any value in losing my temper 23.76%

Keeping your cool. While 26% of you are willing to “blow up” when something is overdue, the other 74% report taking a calmer approach and avoiding blow-ups. While getting heated may feel good in the moment and can even prompt the right action, there are costs to doing so. Those explosions might damage relationships, negatively impact your personal brand, and can make you stress out more easily. Ask yourself if it’s really worth it to lose your cool. Most of the time the person who made the mistake knows they erred. Getting upset won’t necessarily change their behavior or performance. Consider walking away for a few moments then asking what needs to get done to rectify the situation and channel your energy in that direction. It seems like the vast majority of respondents to the poll take that approach.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.