I just got back from a presentation. It went well but my perfectionist voice harps incessantly. Did that one participant need more time to grapple with an exercise? Should I have tried the roleplay together instead of letting them work separately? Since each group reacts to exercises uniquely, it is impossible to control outcomes. I’m [...]
Note: The 2012 Workplace Issues Report is online here. We’re in the midst of collecting responses on the 2009 Workplace Issues Survey Here’s a “teaser” of some results. Interestingly despite current economic pressure, thus far this year the vast majority of responses still focus on the “people side” — for example, based on rough calculations [...]
Ace was a better tennis player than his sister Sophie. He usually won their bi-weekly games. Then Sophie decided to take some lessons. She had taught herself to play and now she really wanted to improve her game. Her instructor required Sophie to take apart her swing, and her abilities deteriorated. Ace teased his sister [...]
I’d like to write several posts about this — about how EQ helps us plan for change, how it is key to our resiliency, and how it’s essential for leading change. But for today I’ll focus on how this intelligence can give us insight, or understanding. Change is confusing. While we’re fabulous at change, usually, [...]
Dr. Anabel Jensen, President of Six Seconds, once told me that if I would get any magazine it should be Scientific American Mind. She told me it would inform by trainings and my overall life! Little did I know at the time that she would be so right! In the February/March issue of Scientific American [...]
This is an excerpt from a keynote for young executives in the Malaysian government (aka “emerging leaders”). My goal in this session was to engage them to consider how they show up as leaders and the opportunity offered by using emotions more consciously and effectively. The clip starts with our “EQ-Performance Chain” which shows how [...]
Today Dev Dhaliwal (Director of our office here in Malaysia) and I were in “The Mall” in Kuala Lumpur – one of the first big shopping malls in the city (opened in 1986). We were near the top where big curving metal beams meet the roof, and Dev said, “I remember how when this opened [...]
My sister works in a highly competitive, political environment. She calls it the “hall of mirrors” because of the constantly shifting alliances and schemes of her colleagues. Soon after her employment, “Jill” discovered that the charming banter of her co-workers hid stealth campaigns of character assassination and departmental warfare. Despite the risks, Jill dedicated herself [...]
I have been thrilled to the very core by the inspiring words written recently on **Optimism** by two fantastic people. Optimist No 1 is Alex Steffen – World Changing Alex starts his important article in Good of 31 December by stressing the seriousness of the world’s current crisis: “We are at a moment unique in [...]
Did an EI program today. While the bulk of the day flowed with excitement and laughter, our group did have some problems working through the 6 second videocamera exercise. This analytical tool can help a participant explore the costs and benefits of our behavior patterns. The exercise challenges us to delve deeply into a moment [...]