A short leadership coaching monologue by Chris Hunsicker arguing that leaders must regulate their moods to lead consistently. He introduces the concept of 'emotional stamina' (ability to manage moods), offers a practical three-step framing—name it, tame it, ride it—and prescribes micro-resets (breathing, brief walks, writing, mantras) so mission, not mood, drives behavior.
Chapters
Foreign. Picture this. A fighter walks into the ring with one hand tied behind his back. Not because his coach or his trainer did that to him, but he did it to himself earlier that day with stress, distraction, and exhaustion. And so many leaders are doing the exact same thing. They're showing up to fight for their team, and. But they're letting their mood run the mission, and then they wonder why they're losing. If you want to lead with power, you got to take back the emotional thermostat. Today, we break the myth. Your mood is not the boss anymore. I'm Chris Hunsicker, and this is the dealership war room. Leadership fire. Built daily, fueled intentionally delivered relentlessly. So let's go create some leadership fire. Let's not sugarcoat this. Most leaders don't need a new or another strategy. What they need is emotional control. In my book, Unstoppable Culture, I speak to this very specifically. I call this emotional stamina, or the stamina or ability to manage your emotional moods. I want you to think back for a minute on what the last five or ten off days that you had when you just weren't at your best. What kind of things did you find yourself doing or not doing on those off days? Did you find yourself canceling or skipping the one on ones? Did you find yourself maybe avoiding a hard or a difficult conversation that you knew needed to be had, or was it just a tone for the date? Did you find yourself getting quieter or colder or snappier? You see, we think our moods are private, but they're not, and they always leak. And what we do with our moods is training the room every bit as much as our words. And let me tell you personally, this is me, all right? This happens to me. I do not show up at a dealership or at a coaching session with, like, super excited to coach. There are times when I'm not feeling so great, and it's critical what I do. How do I show up? There's times that I go out to the car, and I just stare at the steering wheel, and I have to literally coach myself. Like, no. Lock in, dial in, step up. I even had someone in a dealership come up to me once today. You've been coming here and coaching us for years, and I've never seen you, like, unhappy. And I said, you won't. And he said, well, I know your life's not that great. I go, it's not. I have just as many problems or struggles as everybody else. I said, but I'm only here one day a month, and for any one of you, you only get a half an hour or an hour with me one time a month. I can't be off. And so no matter what's going on, I have to be on. Now some days it's hard enough that I can coach one or two sessions and I do have to go out in the car, I have to go out for a walk. I have to go into the bathroom and close the stall and just close my eyes for 60 seconds and breathe and focus, flip the switch and come back and be ready to serve. Because I have learned how to master my emotions just like you have. And now how do we dial in that skill to do it more often? On demand and under pressure. So when that wave of negative emotions come, what you need to do is not fake it and not suppress it. You got to regulate it. That's the work. Not avoiding the feelings, but it's leading through them with discipline. That's the power of great leadership. Moods are natural. They're an everyday part of life. But mission driven leaders, focused leaders, don't obey them. It's the mission that drives, not the mood that drives. Mission driven leaders build into their day rhythms, resets and command systems. Because here's the hard truth. You can't lead others if you can't lead your emotional state. Because emotional self regulation, this isn't about perfection. It's about presence. It's about showing up the same way on the hard days as you do on the good days. Today's war room challenge is simple. I want you to identify that one part of your day where your mood tends to hijack your mission. It might be right after that one meeting. Maybe it's late in the day when you're starting to feel tired. Maybe it's dealing with that one underperforming person that just frustrates the heck out of you. But whatever it is, I want you to identify where that's at. So when you find that point where your mood takes over your mission, first name it. Because if you don't name it, you can't tame it. And in my book I talk about name it, team it, and write it. Because here's a principle. With anything that goes on. Once you name it, it loses some of its power. When you tame it, it stops interrupting and it can't hijack your mission. And when you ride it, you turn what used to be an abstraction into a focus. The ancient Greeks used to say, the demon that you swallow gives you its energy. That's exactly what happens when you do this. Because if you don't name it, your team sure as heck is going to feel it. And they don't just get distracted, they start to lose trust in you because they don't know who's going to show up. Have you ever worked for that one guy? You really loved him, he was a great leader, but no emotional control. And every day he'd come in, you go, hey, Bob, you know, what do you think? Good day, bad day, on or off? And there was literally this conversation with everybody when you came in, like, how are you dressed? What are you wearing? What's your mood? Cause everybody needed to know, what's going to happen with the boss today? Good day or bad day, don't be that guy. It absolutely destroys productivity. So now that you see it, you've named it. Now what we need to do is we've got to create some micro resets, some simple, easy tools that you can use on the spot, any moment. The first, quickest way that you can absolutely change your state is with your breath. Just stop and breathe. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your nose, I don't care. But if you stop and just breathe, even one breath can reset you from your sympathetic to your parasympathetic nervous system. Three or four breaths for 30 seconds or a minute, you can absolutely reset your mood. You might want to take a little micro walk, right? Get up, breathe, and then take a little walk around the dealership, come back in and reset yourself. It's okay to lose a minute, it's not okay to lose a day. I know for some people, writing is what makes a difference. So get out a piece of paper, draw a little mind map, or write down the things that are coming up or the things that you're worried about. Just getting them out of your head onto a sheet of paper reduces their power and reduces their ability to really affect you or nail you. And it could be a mantra that you speak into your chest. I lead my state. My mood is not my master. And you say it out loud, with emotion, with energy, so that you actually shift your emotions and what's going on. But whatever it takes, start now. Consistency doesn't come from charisma, it comes from command. Please hear me. You are not weak. You are under trained. And that's good news, because emotional regulation, emotional control is a skill, it's not a gift. And today you sharpened it. You are in control. Your moods are not the boss, you are. Take control, work at the reset, use your tools, and I will see you tomorrow in the dealership war room.
