There’s an intriguing concept called ‘playing on tilt’ in gaming and sports which carries over to leadership. The chess player blunders a major piece, gets rattled, makes two more bad decisions, and is checkmated by an inferior player. She says “Let’s play again” and loses again in frustration. Or the basketball player makes a few defensive mistakes and gets angry, then fouls out. The video game industry has made billions of dollars from kids (of all ages) playing one round after another in frustration. Playing on tilt means playing when you’re not in full control.
The way to keep yourself from playing on tilt is to take 5 minutes, move around to get your blood circulating, and take a few deep calming breaths. Only then should you proceed.
You’re wise to be 3 minutes late to a meeting rather than going into the meeting playing on tilt. Self-control matters immensely.
