Exactly Who Is Afraid?

Climbing Lessons Learned is a concise, end-of-month peek at the childhood roots of unhelpful leadership patterns. The science of human development reveals your early curriculum in “how to lead” and how its lessons show up today.

Dear leader, emotions aren’t “good” or “bad.” They don’t measure how “easy” or “difficult” you are to follow. But seeing their sources is crucial. When is emotion reasoned, and when created in your subconscious?

A successful leader doesn’t suppress emotion. She greets it, asking, “Where’d you grow up?”

The worst thing we can do is get bored or complacent or worse - suppress our [emotion] and then see it burst forth in unhealthy ways. ~Kameron Hurley, U.S. science fiction and fantasy author

When emotions reflect your subjective experience of the moment, all is well! If the moment holds a literal fist, BE AFRAID! Take appropriate action.

And…separate reason from stories created in your mind’s basement. You compile sensory data from here, there, and last year into: I’m under threat… or disrespected, or left out, or….what?

Are you anxious, or is it a recording?

So. When did your emotional receiver get stuck on the fear, pain, or anxiety channel?