Management

What you’re doing makes a lot more sense if you know what you’re doing. In the film Patton, George C. Scott plays the domineering and inspiring leader of American troops in World War II. In one scene, Scott’s character flies into an uncontrollable rage, exorcising his staff for their lack of intensity and demanding seemingly impossible results. Subsequently, his chief of staff tells him privately that his staff doesn’t know whether Patton has lost control or if he is just acting. Patton replies, “It’s not important that they know the difference. It’s only important that I know.” General Patton, like many successful leaders, understood the importance of knowing his own capabilities and limitations. A less skillful manager might have engendered frustration and disrespect among his troops, but Patton inspired confidence and selfsacrifice. How can the same act by different managers have such different effects, and how can some managers use something as undisciplined as a temper tantrum as an effective technique for getting results? The answer lies in looking beyond the act and considering the related issue of selfawareness. awareness training is that you cannot expect others to have confidence in you unless you have confidence in yourself. It seems a paradox of human behavior that successful leaders often display not only extraordinary confidence but exceptional vulnerability as well, such as King David of the Old Testament. Open displays of strong emotion, including loss of one’s temper, put that vulnerability on display. It is like saying, “This is what I feel strongly about, and I am not ashamed to have such strong feelings about a just cause.” It is, in a way, a bit of acting.

to outrageous displays of temper. Managers are constantly choosing modes of behavior for themselves. They choose between intuition and analysis, between discipline and