How to Keep Your Composure When Leading Teams

What is Composure?

Composure is the state of being calm, feeling in control of oneself. A repose of mind; it makes you feel confident and seem peaceful.

Simply put, it is maintaining your cool under situations of extreme pressure when leading teams.

You Must Develop Some Muscle!

Have you ever been under so much pressure that you snapped? You must have been dealing with difficult projects, leading a team, chasing after a deadline or a difficult team member.

Guess what? You could handle much more and remain sane, keeping your cool. This is how you keep your composure when leading teams.

As Warren Buffet put it “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you.

True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you, that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass”.

Why Leadership Composure Is Important?

As a leader, the buck stops with you. The success and effectiveness of your team and projects is your responsibility.

You will inevitably come across enormous challenges, and under such circumstances, you need to exercise restraint and remain objective.

You need to possess an air of modesty to produce high-quality work and drive higher performance.

Your composure as a leader goes beyond affecting your state of mind. It inspires confidence in your team members. When others see you calm, they are likely to relax and feel confident.

If a problem occurs, your reaction as a leader sends signals. Your composure will help your team make a bad situation better, instilling in them an affirmative, can-do spirit.
Leadership composure ensures that the signals sent to your team showcase confidence.

You need to offer the signal that you can get through this and succeed by making the best of the situation. If you want your team to remain calm, rational, and on top of their game, no matter what, you need to be a composed leader! It’s a remarkable path to team building.

How Do You Keep Your Composure as a Leader?

1. Keep Your Emotions Under Control

You must not wear your emotions on your sleeves. Leadership demands heightened levels of emotional self-control. When the going gets hard, you need to lead, not to yell. As animated or as disappointed as you may be, you have to keep your cool.

Seasoned leaders know to keep their emotions under control. You need to exercise emotional self-control such that even your body language does not give you away.

A composed leader is not raising their voice and hitting their desk in anger or frustration. On stormy seas, when everyone is in panic, you must hold your paddle steady.

2. Take a Break

It is not easy to maintain your cool in the heat of the moment. When you feel a reaction is building up, pose, and take a step back. Do not give an immediate response. Buy as much time as you can before making a final decision.

Hold that email for a while. Let the caller know you will call them right back. Put your computer to sleep and head out for a cup of coffee, and to take a deep breath of fresh air.

Wait as long as you possibly can before giving your response. A moment may be all you need to consider the right amount of perspective.

You may just realize that the situation does not warrant a reaction. When you pause, you are able to reflect and evaluate on the best decision.

Cooler heads will prevail and this curbs your immediate visceral reaction. You will realize there is always a better solution that does not involve something you will have to take back later.

3. Remain Positive

Your team is always watching your actions, behavior, interactions, and overall demeanor. When turbulent times come, your team is always reading your narrative.

It needs to be one that tells of your confidence in their ability and steers business growth. During uncertain times, your employees feed off your attitude as a leader.

You need to set the right tone for your organization. Your positive attitude will go a long way to neutralize chaos and enable your leadership to progress beyond any negativity.

Keep a positive mental attitude. It will not only keep your team inspired and hopeful but also build positive momentum for the betterment of the entire team.

4. Take Responsibility

The most composed leaders are made during times of crisis. It is the firm resolve to solve the problem that makes the difference.

As a leader, appreciate that no matter whose action or reaction caused the problem, it is your sole responsibility. You cannot remain confident and feel in control by shifting blame.

Be accountable. Make a decision to assume responsibility and lead your team to take the necessary steps towards solving the problem.

A situation will always arise due to courses of action by different parties. Who did or did not do what was expected. But it is your responsibility to neutralize the problem and lead your team towards achieving the desired goals past the obstacles.

5. Don’t Show Doubt

To attain composure, you must respond to situations decisively. You cannot afford to show your team members any doubt. You need to speak with conviction, confidence, and authority.

Regardless of occurrences and troubling situations, you should remain on top of things.

Your answer is the way forward. With your delivery alone, you must give your employees the impression that everything is under control.

Whether you know the answer or not, you must take the lead. Inspire confidence and a sense of direction because after all is said and done, you are the go-to person.

Conclusion

Leading with composure means understanding that crisis is inevitable and keeping your head through it all. It is a critical leadership quality that will ensure you experience business growth through all the changes of life.

You need to be confident, positive, self-controlled, accountable, and to calculate your moves under situations of extreme pressure and uncertainties to remain composed as you lead.

You are the lighthouse that shows your team the way, so you must keep your head when all your team members are losing theirs.

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