Archive for the ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Category

The Power of Psychological Courage: Steps to Building Resilience

It’s no secret that the modern workplace can be challenging from unrealistic demands, interactions with peers and clients, cultural issues, and life in general. However, it’s not just raw talent that makes for a successful employee. Psychological Courage is taking risks by facing challenges instead of avoiding them and confronting fears, uncertainty, and emotional distress to take decisive action. Psychological Courage is crucial for navigating stress, conflict, and change. The result will be empowerment, building stronger relationships, and ultimately enhancing performance.

Psychological Courage will require showing vulnerability, speaking openly and honestly, and learning from failures to shift them into opportunities.

How do we move into Courage:
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Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion Article

There have been so many posts regarding compassion, empathy, sympathy, and pity; however, do we really understand the difference?

Compassion, empathy, and sympathy are all related concepts but have distinct differences. Compassion is an emotion that motivates behavior; it leads to action. It involves understanding the struggles of another person and wanting to help them. Empathy is a feeling of shared experience; it’s being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand their feelings. Sympathy, on the other hand, is an emotion characterized by feeling sorry for or sad about someone else’s plight. While sympathy does not always lead to action, it does show understanding and concern for another person’s suffering or misfortune. Pity, on the other hand, is a feeling of superiority that demeans those for whom it’s felt; it does not lead to any kind of helpful behavior.
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How to Enjoy the Holidays

The Holiday season is here, and although many look forward to some time off and spending with friends and family, a great deal of stress, obligation, and exhaustion can accompany this time.

So here are 3 steps to enjoy and be grateful during the holidays.

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Failing Forward?

What is the definition of failing forward? 

First, learning from failure, and second, taking action steps to move forward. John Maxwell’s “Fail Forward” and Ryan Babineaux/John Krumboltz’s “Fail Fast, Fail Often” are great resources for this topic. What happens, though, when you are in a risk-averse environment or your leader fears failure? Likely, failing forward is not tolerated; it may not be said in words but is demonstrated in action. 

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What can employers do around Quiet Quitting:

Quiet quitting is quitting your job with no notice or quitting the idea of going above and beyond.  Per Gallup, 50% of the US workforce make up quiet quitters.

When an employee gives notice, it can be a tough pill for any company to swallow. As the old saying goes, it’s not necessarily the quitting that’s hardest, it’s the quitting without notice that does the most damage. Whether two weeks or two months, employees who leave without any kind of notice put extra stress on their team, and their manager. Of course, sometimes life happens, and people have to quit without notice.   Below are steps and best practices your organization can take:

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“Don’t Take it Personally”​ is not helpful

There’s a lot of wisdom in the old saying, “don’t take it personally.” But is it okay to say that to someone whose upset? Is it helpful, or is it just a way to brush off their feelings and ignore what they’re going through?

We no longer live in a world where personal and business are separated. We never did; however, the phrase “don’t take it personally” is not helpful; it is dismissive. Our personal and our business are now blended. Furthermore, taking it “personally” is not what we need to address. It is the reaction we are trying to avoid or ignore.

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Why do we have to talk so much about Emotions?

The reason why we are talking so much about emotions these days is simple. As a society, we have not been consistent or set as a priority to practice Emotional Intelligence with as much focus as we apply to other skill sets.

Our current environment is a perfect example of the importance of Emotional Intelligence and what a necessary skill set it is. In comparing world leaders, we see those who combine their intelligence with their emotions to deliver powerful messages. Others just bombard us with information without emotion, generally with negative results.

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How to Survive the Holidays Both Professionally and Personally

The Holiday season brings time off, visits with friends and family, stress, obligation, and exhaustion.

This time of the year, I like to remember something Oprah Winfrey said, “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” During the holidays, I believe the struggle for many of us is between how things should look like instead of the quality or intention of the thing itself.

So here are 3 steps for surviving, enjoying, and being grateful during the holidays:  (more…)

What is compassion and why is it important in the workplace?

Compassion is the ability to listen, understand, acknowledge the emotional state of another person or oneself.

Emotions are tricky and messy and we all try to avoid that uncomfortable state at work. It is interesting that for every situation we encounter we will have an emotional reaction. The brain will analyze and assess for meaning and purpose however it is possible that once an emotional response is identified it may take a short cut before the brain fully understands what is happening. (more…)

I Want an Omelet without Eggs; 3 Steps to Reframing What You Do Want

I was at a networking lunch the other day and someone was telling a story about a friend who was at a restaurant ordering breakfast. She looked at the menu and stated “I want an omelet without eggs.” When she said this, we all looked around the table a bit confused and began to laugh, trying to figure out what she really wanted.

Thanks to a great waitress who had the customer focus on what she did want; she discovered she wanted all the other elements in the omelet and the skillet breakfast was the want. Which by the way, was on the menu. (more…)