Speaker 1: Have you ever received an email and it's rubbed you
Speaker 1: up the wrong way? Your emotions are running high, and
Speaker 1: you type out a response He hits in, but immediately
Speaker 1: you wish that you'd slept on it instead of acting
Speaker 1: so impulsively. Within car Sales, CEO Cameron McIntyre is known
Speaker 1: as being as cool as a cucumber. He believes that
Speaker 1: staying composed is a critical trait of the leaders. So
Speaker 1: how does he maintain his composure in the face of
Speaker 1: stress and a share price that fluctuates daily? And how
Speaker 1: does he avoid responding impulsively or emotionally to emails that
Speaker 1: rub him up the wrong way. My name is doctor
Speaker 1: Amantha Imba. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of
Speaker 1: behavioral science consultancy Invent Him. And this is how I
Speaker 1: work a show about how to help you do your
Speaker 1: best work. On Today is my Favorite Tip episode, we
Speaker 1: go back to an interview from the past and I
Speaker 1: pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In today's extract,
Speaker 1: I speak with cars L CEO Cam McIntyre about his
Speaker 1: strategies for how he keeps his call. I'll reveal my
Speaker 1: sources after the interview. But yeah, delect does that ring
Speaker 1: true to you, or do you feel like you're sometimes
Speaker 1: flustered on the inside but just remaining composed on the outside.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely true, right, I mean you call it composure, right,
Speaker 2: And I guess as a leader, I mean, there's just
Speaker 2: no excuse you have to stay composed even when you
Speaker 2: might be feeling.
Speaker 3: A little bit irritated.
Speaker 2: It's super important that you do stay composed because if
Speaker 2: you don't, it's a poor reflect on leadership, and that
Speaker 2: sort of thing is contagious in an organization. So composure
Speaker 2: is mission critical. I guess for me, when I feel
Speaker 2: a little bit irritated, what are my strategies in terms
Speaker 2: of dealing with that? If you think about it from
Speaker 2: that point of view, I guess what I try and
Speaker 2: do is put things into con text. So, yeah, there's
Speaker 2: an issue that I'm dealing with, I might put it
Speaker 2: into context of my own personal health or you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, at least I've got my health for or
Speaker 2: at least I've got my family or at least I've
Speaker 2: got my friends and happiness, and so try and contextualize
Speaker 2: the issue that you're dealing with, and often that helps
Speaker 2: you talk yourself off the ledge. I guess the other
Speaker 2: thing might be, if it's a real work related issue,
Speaker 2: to come back to that earlier discussion around our share
Speaker 2: price and what have you, maybe I'll put it into
Speaker 2: the context of this issue is nothing in the context
Speaker 2: of the expectations of the market or the expectations of
Speaker 2: my employees and how they're feeling engaged, so you get
Speaker 2: over it would be another way I'd address it and
Speaker 2: ensure I'm remaining composed. I guess if all that fails,
Speaker 2: there'd be maybe one or two people inside the organization
Speaker 2: where you can vent to making sure that you've got
Speaker 2: your people around you that you trust, or it might
Speaker 2: be an external person who you trust, who understands your business,
Speaker 2: that understands you and what you're going through. Just having
Speaker 2: that external perspective as well to one help you vent,
Speaker 2: but also two to help you rationalize any decision making
Speaker 2: that you've got.
Speaker 3: So that all works in that context.
Speaker 2: If I'm thinking about an email, so sometimes you get
Speaker 2: emails that land in your inbox that you want to
Speaker 2: fire off a response to, and my strategy around that
Speaker 2: is I'll write a response, but I'll put it in
Speaker 2: my drafts and I'll leave it there for twenty four hours,
Speaker 2: and then I'll come back and have another look at
Speaker 2: it the next day, and if I still feel the
Speaker 2: same way about it, then I'll show it to someone
Speaker 2: else and get a second person's opinion before I send it,
Speaker 2: so that I'm not acting irrationally or not acting in
Speaker 2: a manner that's not composed. So for me, composure is
Speaker 2: super important. It's like the duck that swims along the water.
Speaker 2: It may look like you're swimming calmly along the top
Speaker 2: of the water, bit underneath you you're paddling pretty hard,
Speaker 2: and it's making sure that's the impression that I'm leaving
Speaker 2: on people.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: It does, and that's an interesting example with the email.
Speaker 1: Also probably means that it's a good way of avoiding
Speaker 1: making news headlines as well. Do you use that approach?
Speaker 1: I guess like the sleep on it test, as I
Speaker 1: sometimes hear it referred to in relation to big decisions
Speaker 1: that you make at work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 2: Although yeah, I like how people say I'm going to
Speaker 2: sleep on it, but if it's a big enough issue,
Speaker 2: they're not getting any sleep anyway, so it's more like
Speaker 2: I'll lie in bed and think about it issue.
Speaker 3: So yes, no.
Speaker 2: But that's the philosophy that I tend to try and
Speaker 2: practice is I try not to get caught up in things,
Speaker 2: because it's so easy to get caught up and just
Speaker 2: misread things because you see things the way you see things,
Speaker 2: and sometimes you need to step back and you need
Speaker 2: to think about different contexts, you need to think about
Speaker 2: different angles, and that sleep on it factor helps you
Speaker 2: bring all those different positions into play in order for
Speaker 2: you to then make a more rational and composed decision
Speaker 2: or response. So I like that theory too.
Speaker 1: Are there other ways that you're getting that perspective with
Speaker 1: some of the bigger decisions that you have to make.
Speaker 2: The other perspectives are having the right people around you
Speaker 2: that you trust.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm in a very fortunate vision.
Speaker 2: I've got lots and lots of great people around me,
Speaker 2: and so having great counsel is super important. Inside the
Speaker 2: organization is super important, But also having great counsel outside
Speaker 2: the organization is super important too.
Speaker 3: So you're having a network.
Speaker 2: Of peers in similar organizations, in similar roles to you
Speaker 2: that you can bounce things off. And it's amazing that
Speaker 2: the conversations that you'll have about.
Speaker 3: A particular issue.
Speaker 2: You think you're unique, you think you're the only one
Speaker 2: that's had to deal with it, and you'll bounce it
Speaker 2: off three friends and they've all had to deal with
Speaker 2: it in the past twelve months. And having that network
Speaker 2: is really important to me, particularly if I get myself
Speaker 2: in a position where I do need that third party advice.
Speaker 2: I'm lucky I've got I've got a great board too,
Speaker 2: and a fantastic chairman. So I think the strategy for
Speaker 2: me is old, internalized first, figure things out. If I
Speaker 2: still need external counsel, then I'll either go internally or
Speaker 2: I'll go externally, just depending on what the issue is
Speaker 2: and if there's any conflicts and so on, that sort
Speaker 2: of sit around it.
Speaker 1: Hello there, I hope you like that extract from cam. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are not a subscriber or follower of How
Speaker 1: I Work, you might want to hit subscribe or follow
Speaker 1: so that you get alerted as to whenever new episodes drop.
Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventing with production support
Speaker 1: from Dead Set Studios. And thank you to mattin Nimba
Speaker 1: who does the audio mix for every episode and makes
Speaker 1: everything sound awesome. See you next time.