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When you think of soft skills, what comes to mind? I use to hate the term "soft skills" because many people would devalue them due to the word "soft". Then I realized that the reason people discounted soft skills is because they do not understand them and the massive impact they have on success,...
Purpose. If I asked you to put in one sentence the overarching purpose for your life, what would you say? Is that an easy question or difficult question to answer?
Shifting or Drifting
Purpose is the reason we do things. It is the WHY behind our decisions and actions.
Without a clear purpose, you...
Empathy. That one word raises many questions.
- What is it?
- How do I practice it?
- What value is there in being empathetic?
Many people confuse sympathy with empathy. An easy way to think of differentiating the two -- sympathy is detached, empathy is engaged and involved.
Six Seconds, a...
Optimism - an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome. (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
When you think of optimism, what comes to mind? Is it difficult for you to be optimistic? We see people who just seem to be...
Where does motivation come from?
- Recognition for doing a good job
- Getting a pay raise
- Getting likes and followers on social media
These are external motivators, and yes, they can give us motivation. However, they tend to be short term motivation boosters, not long term. Ask yourself how long...
I am currently running an EQ survey to gain insight into the emotional environment people are experiencing. In that survey, here is one of the questions, and the responses to date:
When you are experiencing strong emotions, what do you struggle with?
Notice that the largest response was being...
I was sitting in a meeting with a group of leaders recently. The question was asked, "Why do our people get stuck all the time?" I asked them if that was true. They admitted it was not all the time, but it was more often than they would like. Through a series of questions, we finally determined...
Have you ever been in that place where you recognize you are in the exact same place you have been before? I am not talking about a physical location. I am focused on a situation, or a conversation, or even a conflict with someone.
Patterns
We all have certain patterns we have developed. These...
When you think of changing behavior...what comes to mind?
- A pattern or habit you want to change?
- Changing another person's behavior?
- Learning and growing?
- Gaining new skills?
It could be any or all of these, and more.
Behavior
If we think of defining behavior, the simple definition is the way...
Have you ever thought about how you build a relationship? It is really simple...and complex. The simple part is connection and trust building. That is how relationships start and grow. But what is underneath connection and trust building? EQ (emotional intelligence) skills that you may not even...
When do you find it difficult to make good decisions? For me, it is when I am dealing with some challenging emotions that arise out of different circumstances in my life.
The power of EQ
For example, recently we had a client call us and ask if they could be released from an agreement we had in...
Recently we have explored self-awareness and self-management, two of the three major categories of emotional intelligence competencies and skills. Now let's look at self-direction. Self-direction is the ability to stay on course. To do that, we need a clear purpose for our life. Standards that we...
