Anger Parameters

The picture is getting clearer. Keep anger to a minimum. Make it a tactic rather than an emotion. Avoid profanity and public displays of anger. Develop an anger "style" that separates you from the ranters and ravers. And, finally, put outer parameters on your anger.

For example, never use anger arbitrarily. There are some well-known people who have gotten to the top of the heap by behaving so arbitrarily that people are scared to mess with them. History is in fact replete with them. It goes way back. For example, the Roman emperor Caligula had people executed almost at random. During the French Revolution, the Jacobins used the guillotine as an arbitrary weapon of terror. Joseph Stalin imposed order on the Soviet state in exactly that manner—the arbitrary exercise of power—purging even people loyal to him. These men got to the tops of their fields, right? Let's see now: Caligula was murdered. So were all of the Jacobin leaders. Stalin has gone down in history as the second worst leader ever, right behind Hitler—the true master of arbitrary anger.

Arbitrary action never wins in the long run—not for tyrants and dictators and not for modern-day executives. A few years ago, the business community was buzzing about the CEO of a major division of an aerospace company who was ousted by the board of directors while he was on a business trip to Europe. Stories emerged of the ousted CEO having called vice presidents into his office and berating or even firing them without notice. "He was the most arbitrary man I have ever encountered," one of his subordinates told me. "Eventually it caught up with him."

That is the final lesson about anger in the workplace: when you are angry, make sure that everyone understands why you are angry. While anger can be an effective professional tactic, anger devoid of reason never succeeds over the long haul.