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Issue #24: February 28, 2003
To our readers:
There are two facts about anger in the workplace that are helpful to know.
The first is that it is very common. For one employee out of every six surveyed recently by
the Gallup Organization, anger had at some point escalated into a desire to hit someone.
In another survey, 42% of 1,300 American workers said yelling and verbal abuse took place
where they worked, and 29% admitted they had yelled at co-workers
(Beth Nissen, November 2000, CNN.com).
The second useful fact is that anger can be a valuable tool for improvement in your organization. Anger ignored can become destructive, but anger explored can illuminate opportunities to make positive changes.
Your goal--whether you are a business owner, leader, manager, supervisor, or career-minded
individual--is twofold: to defuse anger before it causes damage overtly or covertly,
and to discover what drives that anger. "Anger often signals important data about relationships,
resources, circumstances, or procedures that are in need of improvement," according to
Donald Gibson, Ph.D. and Bruce Tulgan, authors of Managing Anger in the Workplace.
It pays to know how to put anger to good use.
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Tips for Transforming Anger into a Change Agent:
1. Make sure you understand the angry person's position to his or her satisfaction.
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle Centered
Leadership, has provided an excellent prescription for understanding another person's position,
which he described again at a recent Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Insights on Leadership
breakfast. What he prescribes is listening to a person until he or she says you fully
understand what she/he said. You listen without interrupting until the person is finished
speaking. Then you tell that person what you heard him say. If he says you didn't quite get
what he was saying, you listen while he tries again to explain it. Again you tell him/her what
you heard. If he says you don't quite have it, you ask for more clarification. Be patient.
Give this process all the time it needs. Remember, you are not saying you agree with the other
person; you are simply applying all of your mental, social, and intuitive powers to the task of
understanding what that person is saying, feeling, experiencing, so that she or he feels
understood. The key is that you do not attempt to make your point or explain yourself or
justify your company's policies in any way, shape, or form while the other person is helping
you understand her position. You must wait until that person yields the floor to you by
saying you do understand her.
When people feel understood they are almost always able to let go of their anger.
Once that happens they can move on to more productive behaviors.
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2. Sift through all you have learned while listening to the angry person to discover
areas in which you, your department, your organization can improve.
The anger provided evidence that something might not be quite right. With the anger
defused, you can turn your brain power to the task of discovering what that anger tells
you about you, your department, or your organization. Engage your formerly angry colleague
or employee in identifying areas to improve--policies, procedures, rules, relationships,
processes, resources--and practical means of improving them.
If you follow these two tips you will soon be on the path to creating a culture--whether in
your own department or throughout your organization--that encourages people to make anger an
agent of positive, productive change.
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