Even Temperament - The Key to Optimal Long Term Performance

I've been reading Snowball - the biography of Warren Buffett. One of the characteristics of Warren Buffett that shows up repeatedly is his even temperament. When times are good and the market is going crazy, Buffett does not get "drunk with the Kool-Aid". When the market tanks and everybody is over-reacting in a state of fear and panic, Buffett maintains his composure.

The book talks about Warren's ability to create a shell around him when dealing with emotionally charged situations (such as when he needed to shut down Dempster mills.) This ability allows him to respond in the most optimal manner possible. In order to avoid becoming totally desensitized Warren brings on the emotional shield only when needed. Thus, one of keys to Warren Buffetts success appears to be his even temperament.

I've begun to conclude that an even temperament holds the key to success in most endeavors. A pumped, up mindset can only work for a few minutes since it calls on the fight or flight response. On the other hand, anything that requires more than a few minutes of effort requires a relaxed focus. And this can be attained only by maintaining a semi-detached state.

In organizations an even temperament becomes all the more important because of group dynamics, office politics, market uncertainty and competition. Thinking further about the problem, I came up with a framework in evaluating people:

The best people are those who have an even temperament and are talented. What about your star engineer who is prone to temper tantrums? It's a tricky question ... but I think that they are almost always more trouble than they are worth. And what about even-tempered people who are not very suited for their current job? They'd do well to have a role shift. Or get some additional training and skill building. Of course, if the person in question neither has talent nor an even tempered, then he is an ideal candidate to be fired!

Some might argue that there are some great leaders who are pumped and not necessarily even tempered and who have succeeded. For example, Steve Ballmer (see video below) is known to be highly emotional. He is even said to have thrown a chair in a fit of anger. My sense is that such personalities are not necessarily good for the organization. In the long run, they simply make the organization  turn on itself and increase the amount of organizational politics, turf wars and territory disputes.