“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

I watched an executive lose their cool without challenge, even though everyone knew the anger was out of place and uncalled for.  A week later, one of the executives direct reports did something similar without anyone saying anything about the behavior.  Anyone want to guess what happens at the next level down within this company?  There is nothing attractive or engaging about an angry person.  But, we let it happen way too often.  We’d all be a lot better off with less anger in the workplace.  We’d all be better off if we’d have a company value…”Count to 10″.

Okay, when James give us direction, recognize that he didn’t say, “please”.  Instead, he said we, “must”.  Let’s put some more must in our days with more listening, slower to speak and a lot slower to get angry.  If we do, we will be different and others will say to themselves, “I must find out why they are like they are”.

Reference: James 1:19 (New Living Translation)