There was a chain of events last Monday: a bad night’s sleep, a disagreement with a grumpy teenage son, a tricky conversation with my wife – all before 7.30am on a wet, grey Monday morning. Funnily enough, I didn’t feel inclined to deal with that ‘stuff’ right then, I had a busy week planned and I needed to get on! And yet, right in that moment is the choice. I could snap and grumble or listen and understand. In essence, it’s a choice whether to move toward or move away from

This is the fifth and final part of this EQ series. You can read the others here: Part 1 Self Awareness, Part 2 Self Regulation, Part 3 Motivation, Part 4 Empathy. The fifth element in Emotional Intelligence is Social Skill, which can be described as the ability to manage relationships to engage people to take certain actions. People with Social Skill are good at managing relationships and building networks; they have the ability to find common ground with others and build ra

This is part 4 of this EQ series. You can read the others here: Part 1 Self Awareness, Part 2 Self Regulation, Part 3 Motivation. The fourth Emotional Intelligence skill is Empathy. Having awareness of the feelings and emotions of others is a key element in creating powerful win-win situations with colleagues and team members. Staff engagement can be significantly increased with this skill alone which, of course, has benefits all the way to the bottom line. In part 3, I talke

In Part 2 of this series, we explored Self Regulation – the second step in developing Emotional Intelligence. If you haven’t seen that article, you can read it here. The third step in raising your Emotional Intelligence is knowing – and using – your Motivation. Motivation is the your ability to use your ‘reason why’ to generate energy and persistence in pursuit of your goals. People who know their motivations are able to use that information to be driven, goal oriented, optim

In Part 1 of this series, we explored Self Awareness – the first step in developing Emotional Intelligence. If you haven’t seen that article, you can read it here. The second step in raising your Emotional Intelligence is Self Regulation, defined as: the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses. Once you’ve become aware of the emotions you’re feeling, and can think about them as they are happening , you’ve opened the door to making choices, not just having reaction

You cannot be a good leader without self awareness. The most compelling, trusted, respected leaders are aware of their emotions and state of mind, giving them the massive advantage of being able to regulate themselves; expertly choosing their responses and actions to get the best outcomes. The best leaders also use self awareness to gain an honest appraisal of their strengths and weaknesses so they can engage the services of people with complimentary skills, leaving no gaps i

Emotional Intelligence in the Leadership of an organisation is crucial for the development of a healthy culture that fosters employee engagement and commitment.This infographic from Norwich University online explains some of the differences between EQ and IQ. #emotionalintelligence #leadership #infographic

You hire people with the right skills. You pay them well. You give them bonuses. All the right things, right? And yet, you find yourself constantly frustrated that they aren’t giving you 100%. When the pressure is on to meet deadlines or find solutions, it can be exasperating to be the only one who seems to be driven and ‘switched on’ to the goals. You just know they could do so much more if they would only commit their full attention and enthusiasm to the work. So much could

I was lucky enough to see a great example of taking a moment instead of having a reaction first-hand when I was working as a radio operator as part of the OC’s group - the operational team supporting the officer in charge of a company of fighting men. It had hit the fan big time and our boss demonstrated excellent Emotional Intelligence supported by proven processes, backed by precision execution to get us out of the sh*t. Although on the face of it, most people would expect