By Gregg Thompson

I must say from the outset that when the words “leadership” and “emotions” are used in the same sentence, I cringe. (Actually, a minute electrical signal is passed from my brain stem to a little almond-shaped thingy in my brain called the amygdala whereupon it is quickly compared to my personal library of weird and wonderful emotional responses created over a lifetime so that it can select one and use it to tell me how I feel about the sentence. Strange as it may seem, I - think of “I” as the rational, conscious, smart part of your brain - have little to do with the decision to cringe). This reaction was likely formed early in my career when, as a young engineering technologist, all of my projects were horrendous failures, not because of their lack of technical merit, but rather because of the irrationality, foolhardiness, idiocy (I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea) of equipment operators. Apparently an insidious, deep-seated mental weakness rendered them incapable of recognizing the sheer brilliance and elegance of my ideas. The Director of Engineering apparently shared this weakness since he arranged a most unwelcome transfer to Personnel Records six months into my job. That foolish move cost him a brilliant young technologist who graduated near the top of his class. It nearly cost me my career. Read on…