Succeed Through
Your Emotional Intelligence
Kansas City Business Monthly - 06.00
By Jim Dugan, Ph.D, Fortisan Group
What does the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce,
Lucent Technologies, the U. S. Air Force and
Valentine Radford have in common? They, along
with more than 600 other companies worldwide,
have all integrated principles of emotional or
EI, into their corporate culture. This new
management philosophy calls on leaders to look
at how they manage their emotions and their
emotions and those of staff members to increase
productivity, maintain and improve morale and,
ultimately, bring more to the bottom line of the
company.
EI-Challenges IQ And Expertise What is EI?
It has been described as "extraordinary people
skills," " a new way of being smart," and a "new
domain of intelligence." In his work on EI,
Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., Harvard trained
psychologist, and author of two best selling
books, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can matter
More Than IQ (1995), and Working With Emotional
Intelligence (1998) contends that how we manage
our emotions is more important than IQ or
technical skills in determining job success.
Critics have accused Goleman of devaluating IQ
and technical skills. However, aren't excessive
hubris, tunnel vision, and poor communication
more likely to derail a career than lack of
technical or cognitive skills?
EI-Underpinnings Of The Corporate Culture
Savvy business leaders have intuitively known
for years that how we manage our emotions is a
driving force in a company's success. Defining
EI as a new way of being smart has made the
business world pay more attention to the role
these human forces play on a daily basis.
The human factors, or EI skills, are the
foundation of the corporate culture. The
stronger the foundation is the stronger the
corporate culture. In a way, EI is the social
lubricant enabling teamwork, collaboration, and
innovation, to occur fluidly. Without some good
EI skills, your corporate culture overheats,
locks up and triggers problems.
Evaluating And Building EI Skills
If you are curious about your EI skills, there
are a number of tests you can take. Based on
your test results, an executive coach trained in
EI can help you design specific strategies to
support and strengthen your skills. However, if
you are not quite ready to take a test here are
a few broad suggestions to try and build your EI
skills:
- Develop An "Empathic" Inner Voice. For many of
us, it is often easier to be forgiving and
compassionate of our colleagues' mistakes than
our own. It is often a fine line between giving
ourselves the right pep talk versus pounding
ourselves for one of life's inevitable missteps.
If you are overly harsh with yourself, with
unrealistic expectations, your stress level is
apt to skyrocket and impair your
decision-making.
- Ease Up On Yourself. Try saying positive
affirmations to yourself such as, "nobody is
perfect," "everybody makes mistake," or " let me
learn from this disappointment."
-
Take A Few Minutes To Reflect. Wasn't it
Socrates who said, "an unexamined life is a life
not worth living?" If you are moving at warp
speed, hustling from city to city and meeting to
meeting, inundated with email, cell phones and
no time to pause and look back, then you may be
inadvertently squelching your intuitive hunches
and creative fire. The hectic pace is also
probably not helping your blood pressure or your
immune system.
-
New Ideas Need Time To Percolate. Nature can
provide a temporary respite. Picture yourself
walking on the beach at dawn, or hiking in the
mountains, and a sudden rain shower gently
tapping your face.
-
Get Into "The Flow." This is different than the
1960s adage "go with the flow" and "if it feels
good then do it" philosophy. Flow simply means
being totally engaged in your work. The first
step of getting into the flow is putting
distractions aside and finding a quiet place to
concentrate and work. Second, you feel some work
pressure; you have a looming deadline, but it is
not tomorrow. Now, you are ready to move into
flow. In the quiet, and as your concentration
builds, time begins to slip by almost unnoticed.
When you are in flow, your thinking and ideas
are stretched. You feel productive and
energized, but even these positive thoughts
donąt distract you. Athletes describe flow as
"getting into the zone," and writers and
musicians talk about it as an ecstatic state
where creativity flourishes. You have been in
flow when you suddenly become aware that the
hunger of thirst you were feeling hours ago
reappears.
These three suggestions sound pretty simple and
easy to implement, but don't be dissuaded by
their simplicity. It takes time and effort to
integrate these suggestions into your day-to-day
business life. If you can adopt these
suggestions , then you are making important
strides in building your EI. |
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