“This is your captain speaking…..……,” and in the most soothing tone he or she continues an announcement. 

Good news, bad news, they always sound so smooth, so in control,  relaxed – even when delivering the toughest announcements. 

Airline captains know their tone, pitch, and rhythm, when speaking over the intercom, conveys even more than the words they may carefully use to communicate with the hundreds of passengers. 

Anxiety, airline pilots know, is highly contagious. 

They know that a plane load of passengers (even those who speak a different language than the captain may use) can hear and detect anxiety without necessarily ever seeing the captain. 

The last thing a flight crew needs is a plane load of anxious passengers. Even under tough or dangerous circumstances, what the captain and crew most need from passengers is that they are both informed and relaxed with relaxed and calm being even more important than informed.

What’s true for an airline captain and crew is also true for you and for me. 

We do our families a great service when we hold onto ourselves (manage ourselves) before we communicate (spread) tough or bad news. 

Families read, hear and catch unmanaged anxiety and it “jumps” to others before we have said a word. 

Anxiety is contagious, in airplanes, schools, businesses, wherever, and in your family.