Dealing with anger in the supply chain

Watching and listening to the 2016 Presidential campaigns, you get the sense there are lots of angry voters out there. Since this is a supply chain/logistics blog, I wondered about anger in the supply chain. As any person in the supply chain knows at times you have to deal with anger, either with your customers or suppliers or yourself.  I will focus on this blog on finding yourself to be angry. Maybe it will be from poor treatment for your company, your boss, your co-workers, your vendors or customers.

One option when your angry is to become a loose cannon.  But ultimately that works like an 20th Century Roadrunner Cartoon.  In those films, Wile E Coyote obsessed about catching the Roadrunner bird, to the point that he could not think logically and every crazy schemes he tries to catch the Roadrunner failed and worse ending up hurting him.  In real life, it can cost you your job, your reputation, your income, and put a major dent in your future.

That is not to say you should bury the emotion. That becomes in time a volcano within. We are dealing with enough volcanoes outside our body as is.

So first things, first, recognize that your angry. Once that is done, you start to feel a little more in control of a bad situation.  It is easy to be so worked up about being anger that the anger takes control of your life and your perspective vanishes and you are slave to the emotion.

Second, realize there is a basis for your anger.  It can be positive motivator to move forward and provide the energy needed to bring desired change. A question to ask, is what can done ti constructively to make things better. In the supply chain, listening to find the real problem is an important part and required first step. When a customers is telling you off for poor delivery, engage them to start finding a better solution.

Sometimes a significant change is necessary. Let me give you this non-supply chain example. A famous headhunter blogger, Nick Corcodilos, says he has seen  a number of millennium women angry that they are not making the same money as men in their position. They search for an employer who will pay what they are worth and move on. This is a constructive use of that anger.

If your supplier or vendor is incapable of performing, and when given a chance to improve fails or ignores you, the angry that this brings will likely lead to a planned, better operation situation when changes are made.

So when angry, recognize what it is and start thinking how to constructively use that energy to get into a better place.  Make yourself sustainable, not a target of derision.

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