Self-Control

Coach Wooden shares knowledge about Self-Control and its role in making all other aspects of leadership more effective:

Self-control, regardless of what we are doing, whether it involves a physical act or a mental decision, must be maintained to produce desirable results. If emotion ever takes over, reason usually flies out the window and the acts or decisions are not likely to be as productive as they should be.

Coach stressed that self-control demands that we do our best to keep our emotions under control at all times. Try to make decisions based on reason, not fear, since fear is an emotion and therefore cannot be reasonable. Lack of self-control will compromise our judgment, common sense and confidence and lead to bad decisions.

Finally – he emphasizes that we must maintain our self-control when others communicate with us in an antagonistic manner. If we allow someone else’s communication to make us angry, we have unwittingly granted them control over our own emotions, rather than maintaining them ourselves. If you don’t like the manner in which someone is talking to you, try to concentrate on the information and why they are communicating it rather than how they are saying it. In this way, you can still absorb the information communicated, but can do so without having your own emotions affected by the other person. Don’t let anybody steal your smile.