Have you ever received an email and it's rubbed you up the wrong way? Your emotions are running high, and you type out a response He hits in, but immediately you wish that you'd slept on it instead of acting so impulsively. Within car Sales, CEO Cameron McIntyre is known as being as cool as a cucumber. He believes that staying composed is a critical trait of the leaders. So how does he maintain his composure in the face of
stress and a share price that fluctuates daily? And how does he avoid responding impulsively or emotionally to emails that rub him up the wrong way. My name is doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Invent Him. And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On Today is my Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an interview from the past and I
pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In today's extract, I speak with cars L CEO Cam McIntyre about his strategies for how he keeps his call. I'll reveal my sources after the interview. But yeah, delect does that ring true to you, or do you feel like you're sometimes flustered on the inside but just remaining composed on the outside.
That's absolutely true, right, I mean you call it composure, right, And I guess as a leader, I mean, there's just no excuse you have to stay composed even when you might be feeling.
A little bit irritated.
It's super important that you do stay composed because if you don't, it's a poor reflect on leadership, and that sort of thing is contagious in an organization. So composure is mission critical. I guess for me, when I feel a little bit irritated, what are my strategies in terms of dealing with that? If you think about it from that point of view, I guess what I try and
do is put things into con text. So, yeah, there's an issue that I'm dealing with, I might put it into context of my own personal health or you know, I mean, at least I've got my health for or at least I've got my family or at least I've got my friends and happiness, and so try and contextualize the issue that you're dealing with, and often that helps
you talk yourself off the ledge. I guess the other thing might be, if it's a real work related issue, to come back to that earlier discussion around our share price and what have you, maybe I'll put it into the context of this issue is nothing in the context of the expectations of the market or the expectations of my employees and how they're feeling engaged, so you get over it would be another way I'd address it and
ensure I'm remaining composed. I guess if all that fails, there'd be maybe one or two people inside the organization where you can vent to making sure that you've got your people around you that you trust, or it might be an external person who you trust, who understands your business, that understands you and what you're going through. Just having that external perspective as well to one help you vent, but also two to help you rationalize any decision making that you've got.
So that all works in that context.
If I'm thinking about an email, so sometimes you get emails that land in your inbox that you want to fire off a response to, and my strategy around that is I'll write a response, but I'll put it in my drafts and I'll leave it there for twenty four hours, and then I'll come back and have another look at it the next day, and if I still feel the same way about it, then I'll show it to someone else and get a second person's opinion before I send it,
so that I'm not acting irrationally or not acting in a manner that's not composed. So for me, composure is super important. It's like the duck that swims along the water. It may look like you're swimming calmly along the top of the water, bit underneath you you're paddling pretty hard, and it's making sure that's the impression that I'm leaving on people.
Does that make sense?
It does, and that's an interesting example with the email. Also probably means that it's a good way of avoiding making news headlines as well. Do you use that approach? I guess like the sleep on it test, as I sometimes hear it referred to in relation to big decisions that you make at work.
Yeah, all the time.
Although yeah, I like how people say I'm going to sleep on it, but if it's a big enough issue, they're not getting any sleep anyway, so it's more like I'll lie in bed and think about it issue.
So yes, no.
But that's the philosophy that I tend to try and practice is I try not to get caught up in things, because it's so easy to get caught up and just misread things because you see things the way you see things, and sometimes you need to step back and you need to think about different contexts, you need to think about different angles, and that sleep on it factor helps you bring all those different positions into play in order for you to then make a more rational and composed decision
or response. So I like that theory too.
Are there other ways that you're getting that perspective with some of the bigger decisions that you have to make.
The other perspectives are having the right people around you that you trust.
And you know, I'm in a very fortunate vision.
I've got lots and lots of great people around me, and so having great counsel is super important. Inside the organization is super important, But also having great counsel outside the organization is super important too.
So you're having a network.
Of peers in similar organizations, in similar roles to you that you can bounce things off. And it's amazing that the conversations that you'll have about.
A particular issue.
You think you're unique, you think you're the only one that's had to deal with it, and you'll bounce it off three friends and they've all had to deal with it in the past twelve months. And having that network is really important to me, particularly if I get myself in a position where I do need that third party advice. I'm lucky I've got I've got a great board too, and a fantastic chairman. So I think the strategy for
me is old, internalized first, figure things out. If I still need external counsel, then I'll either go internally or I'll go externally, just depending on what the issue is and if there's any conflicts and so on, that sort of sit around it.
Hello there, I hope you like that extract from cam. Now, if you are not a subscriber or follower of How I Work, you might want to hit subscribe or follow so that you get alerted as to whenever new episodes drop. How I Work is produced by Inventing with production support from Dead Set Studios. And thank you to mattin Nimba who does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound awesome. See you next time.