Small change: watch your emotional wake

Consider a CEO, who, like all human beings from time to time, is having a bad morning. The kids were argumentative, the traffic was glacial, and the world’s dullest Board meeting awaits. En route to the office, the receptionist asks him or her a quick question. The CEO offers a rude response then sweeps off, uninterested in further discussion.

Two minutes later, the CEO will likely have forgotten that this interaction took place. Two days later, the receptionist might still worry about it.

This is the emotional wake of leadership: the ways in which all leaders can leave lingering impressions on their juniors. It’s an inevitable consequence of any hierarchical system.

When the job of leading change is demanding more of you than you ever thought possible — or you’re just having a bad day — it’s worth remembering that small actions can have a large impact. But this is true in a positive as well as negative sense. It might take less than you think to lift someone up.

Something to consider: what kind of emotional wake am I leaving?

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