Emotional Intelligence and Fakery

Emotional Intelligence (EI, or EQ – Emotional Quotient) was been a consistent topic in leadership circles for 30 years, and it has been written about from the 1930s.

It is rare for a concept, theory or idea to remain at the forefront of organisational thinking for so long. One of the most well-known contributors to our understanding of EQ is Daniel Goleman, and his book Emotional Intelligence. Around the same time, Covey was publishing his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and he went on to relate the habits to Emotional Intelligence.

The idea behind EQ is that our ability to relate meaningfully with other people matters more than our IQ. The concept goes deeper than the usual set of good communication skills, and includes the ability to empathise, and to manage your own and others’ emotions.

Change Management

A reminder to be structured and strategic about all change initiatives, and in all phases of the change — initiation, planning, motivation, implementation and maintenance.

Focus on Performance.

Using Paradoxes to Increase Performance, Achieve Success

“Don’t exclude paradox, it is more than half of life itself!”

As I read this quote this morning, I was reminded of how powerful the Paradox Traits are in Harrison Assessments. I love using them to show our clients how small shifts in the way that they use one or two paradoxical traits can produce extraordinary results with strong performance outcomes.

It is exciting for people, for teams, to be able to clearly see a way forward — often they have been struggling with an issue for a long time without making progress.

Find out more about Harrison Assessments and how we use them.

http://indraconsulting.harrisonassessments.com/

Enjoy your weekend!

Give of Your Time; Respect the Time of Others

Time is an interesting commodity. It is used in different ways all around the world. In our so-called “time poor” countries we consider ourselves so busy that our responsibilities outweigh the time available. We eek out every minute, carefully scheduling and booking appointments weeks and months ahead. We lose a real sense of spontaneity and flexibility. I have also noticed a trend over the past decade in organisations that places such a high value on one’s own time, and that this outweighs the appreciation of the value of time to others.

Once again, it is a balance between managing one’s productivity (which is often but not always a direct outcome of the amount of time that we put into activities), appreciating the use of the time of others, and giving your time freely and generously to others who need or will benefit from it.

Leadership: Exploring Workplace Vulnerability

Here in the offices of Indra Process and Performance Consulting, we are continually extending and updating our Deep Leadership modules and supporting material. It’s a great and dynamic atmosphere as we sort out in our own minds the relevance of material and how we can deliver it in the most meaningful way. For us that means in a way that will change lives and accelerate business results.

Our programs cover both Personal Awareness and Business Awareness.  In the Personal Awareness components, we present and explore numerous traits that are or will become important for leaders intent on building great leadership ability that is applicable in a business world that is rapidly changing.

Recently we have been exploring the place of Leadership Vulnerability in

More on Humility as a Leadership Trait

Long ago, as I started my consulting career, I was assisting a colleague in running a Leadership Development Course. Over a period of several days, I watched this group of 15 individuals, young, confident, cocky and somewhat arrogant. I asked my colleague if I could run a session on Humility. And so began my interest in the traits that, when cultivated and attained, manifest in deep leadership ability.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been revisiting Humility in these posts as we explored some of the concepts behind Good to Great, and in a more abstract way, through Empathy and Business Assertiveness. But humility is difficult to define. Worn as a cloak, something just thrown on,

Great Companies, Humble Leaders, One Pointed Business Determination

It is interesting to be re-reading an article on Level 5 Leadership by Jim Collins, summarising the results of a five year project on companies that went from good to great and then sustained that greatness. He wrote a best selling book about this work — you have probably read it.

I have seen companies develop and mature, but it is that sustainability that is critical. Companies not capable of sustaining greatness falter and then flip-flop through periods of ordinary performance, good performance and occasional great performance.

Although Jim wrote this article some years ago, his summary findings continue to resonate today. At the beginning of his research