Recent events at work caused 3 days of fire fighting to keep systems going. It was a lot of work and was not easy. Stress levels were at an all-time high. While showing the rest of the staff that I was dedicated to fixing the issues, I managed to keep a cool head and work systematically. It’s not easy to keep a cool head, but a lot more problems can occur if you do not. We had one incident when I was in a meeting, a mistake was made that cost me a loss of 2 hours and it could have been prevented by pausing for a second.
Some of the issues that can occur of you let yourself get hot headed are:
- Mistakes are made and sometimes they are bigger mistakes than you started with
- People’s negative energy level jumps to an all time-high
- Physical ailments begin to surface in the people directly involved
- Tempers fly
- Stress increases beyond managed control
How to keep a cool head
- Remain calm
- Stop, breath and think
- Start with one issue and work through it. If you do not know where to start, create a road map.
- Talk about it with a colleague, get the pressures off your chest
- Take breaks, go for walks
- Know when to ask questions
