#### [[It is easier to influence others if you emotionally distance yourself from them]] --- Like how [[Mirror Neurons]] make us mirror the movements and expressions of others we interact with. When we become emotionally involved with others be it through friendship, courtship, or more, we will grow empathetic towards those individuals. We care about what happens to them. By forming relationships and attachments to others we are now invested in them and feel tied to their emotions. This is a major theme in cinema where the villain's think they are more powerful for not forming attachments that may cause them pain/grief/loss and forgo relationships in favor of isolation. In actuality, a support network of relationships makes one stronger and more capable of achieving one's ends. > If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together Leaders and generals "sending their soldiers off to war" don't want to grow too attached to their soldiers because they know that many wont survive and the pain of that loss is deep and reverberating. What those who feel power attempt to do is emotionally distance from their subordinates in an effort to reduce emotional connection with those they predict they might have to force into uncomfortable and painful situations. It's easier to send a cow to slaughter if you didn't spend it's whole life caring for it, raising it, naming it, and knowing it from bottle to grave. Another cinema theme of naming the animal you send to slaughter. The same forces are at play in these boss / subordinate power dynamic. The boss wants the professional distance^[[[Its lonely at the top#^6c4cc6]]] so that they wont feel the sting of emotion when they send you to "slaughter". --- Tags: [[Leadership]] - [[Boss]] - [[Power]] - [[Emotions]] - [[Psychology]] Reference: [[& 2021-01-15 DOES POWER CORRUPT]] Related: - [[Its lonely at the top]] - [[The corrupting influence of power occurs gradually like a frog in a pot of boiling water]]