Anger at work: CEOs tool of the trade

I’ve watched executives exploit in anger -feigned anger that is- numerous times in order to win the show. One time, this guy start calling the team across the table the “Inquisition”: “You’ve forsaken all your children. You’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater, you SOBs.” If only I had a tape recorder, which of course I didn’t, that would be a violation of confidentiality, the NDA I signed.

You rarely, if ever, see how leaders behave, because most meetings are behind closed doors and most conferences (see the Dealbook conference this past week) are boring like hell. Occasionally, you see veterans on TV sparring , these are delightful.

The point is CEOs know how to use trash talk, they do it more often than you think, and that is a skill you want to develop if you want to climb up the ladder. New reader tip: what I do on this blog I analyze the world of corporate power and influence for the benefit of the underlings. I dig deep into the behavior, methods and secrets of the moneyed elite and let you know what they don’t want you to know. Because press releases, biographies and auto biographies reveal only so much (correctly should be: only so little).

So can you trash talk like a MMA fighter ?

Can you subdue an opponent relentlessly ?

Sure you can.

Last Tues. a WSJ column “To Win a Negotiation ? Get Mad” (Elizabeth Bernstein) described some four yet-to-be-published UPenn studies that look at the role of anger in negotiations and competition. And guess what ? You won’t believe that they’ve found: anger does work. “The team that watched a scene from the movie ‘Witness’ where Harrison Ford’s character gets harassed performed better than those who watched a Robbin Williams stand up comedy performance.”

In another setting, in two studies, “Dr. Tamir had participants listen to either heavy metal or calming instrumental music. The participants were told that anger would help them perform better, while others were told that anger would harm their performance. The participants in the first study the were asked to negotiate with another person for money, and those in the second study played an aggressive computer game. The results for both studies were similar: the angry participants who listened to the heavy-metal music performed better -but only when they expected their anger to help them.'”

Science comes on board with what has been seen and known for decades.

“The Secret to Happiness is to
Count your blessings
While Others are adding
Up their troubles.” -William Penn #WalkOnWater #health #Happiness #AwesomeSquared #Forbes400

— Max Cantor (@FinancierGuru) November 11, 2017

If you’ve seen Sheryl Sandberg or Donald Trump speaking, you know how good actors feign anger.

Of course, anger is a destructive emotion, nevertheless it is a useful emotion and an emotion that needs to be mastered. There are several ways to get into the angry mode. Here are some sentences I’ve seen that really work:

I’m not finished here…

Are you calling me a liar ?

You’ve ruined our work of [five] years here.

Did you just come up with that ?

Considering what you’ve done [then and now], It’s a big pile of dung.

Finally, take everything personally. Or appear to.