Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 1/11/16
O
n Saturday night the Cincinnati Bengals lost a football playoff game that they had “in the bag” with time running down because some of their players and their coach lost control. When they should have easily run the clock out, a player fumbled. But there was little time, the Pittsburgh Steelers had no times-out left, and they had at least 40 yards needed for a field goal in a pouring rain. However, on an incomplete pass, a Bengals player blatantly committed a personal foul on the intended receiver, and a second was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for an outburst at the call. Those penalties created a 30 yard advance, and Pittsburgh won on what was then an easy field goal.
Logic makes us think, emotion makes us act. I believe we persuade people and create business when we can make an emotional connection. But we also need the logic to advance the conversation and convert the agreement into business and a check. The emails we wish we never sent were based on emotion, not logic.
These two players, with a history of fighting and trouble, should not have been in the game, but the coach used no logic at all. Emotion forges action but logic establishes borders and focus and rational decisions. My suggestion for all of us is to take a moment of calm before responding to our own emotional triggers. That’s why “road rage” often kills people, beyond football games being lost.
Don’t let yourself be a victim of “life rage.”
D
e minimis non curat praetor. (The magistrate does not consider trifles.)
— from Roman law
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