How often do you call it quits on a great idea before you’ve made it happen?

My two young sons set up a lime-selling stand at the end of our driveway this past weekend. They did quite well out of it, but not without initial sibling drama.

You see, they almost gave up before making the first sale because neither of the boys wanted to be the one who held up the sign to alert passing cars. Too embarrassing, apparently.

And then I witnessed my older son, Ben, take the lead in a way that belied his 11 years. He said to his little brother, “Whoever is holding up the sign when someone stops gets three quarters of that sale, and the other person only gets one quarter.”

Argument over.

My younger son worked the sign like a pro.

Here are three questions that leaders ask themselves before giving up on a project or an idea, thus allowing themselves to get more completed than a significant number of their give-up-too-soon counterparts.

When is the last time your emotions got the better of you at work?

I remember being in a meeting with a senior manager who consistently cut me off every time I began to speak. It would happen in every meeting we were in, and I increasingly dreaded attending meetings with him. In one particular meeting, after he cut me off again, I spent the rest of the meeting intently looking at the agenda, because if I made eye contact with the rest of the attendees, they would have seen the tears welling up in my eyes, and I didn’t want anyone to know how hurt I felt.

What women often want when I coach them

Very often, when I’m coaching or mentoring women in leadership positions, one of their objectives for our work together is to learn to manage their emotions at work. But when they say “manage,” what they really mean is “hide.” Their biggest fear is often that they’ll burst into tears, look “soft” to their bosses and colleagues, and undo all the hard work they’ve put into their leadership careers. And so they curb their feelings when perhaps what they should be doing is listening to them.