“Is your life hard, Mom?” my 8-year-old asked, as I huffed around the kitchen cleaning up the 80th round of snack plates since school had been called off for an entire week for the 2nd hurricane in 2 weeks. His comment snapped me right into mindfulness as he unknowingly became the mirror I needed to peer into that day. (Our children and relationships are always a mirror into our next level of self-mastery.) I softened …
Giving feedback is like crafting the perfect member or client experience—it requires care, thoughtfulness, and a little finesse. But what happens when someone isn’t quite ready to hear your helpful advice and gets defensive? Here are 5 tried-and-true emotional intelligence strategies to handle defensive moments with grace, so you can use the learning opportunity for growth and accountability, all while keeping service smooth and seamless: 1) Approach as a coach who wants to help. (“Let’s …
Will emotional intelligence make me a “soft” leader or lower my team’s delivery of excellence? Heck to the NO! This is a common concern I get from leadership coaching clients I work with. They think if they change their ways, are less authoritative, and more human-focused, performance will suffer. But the opposite is true. Since Daniel Goleman coined the term emotional intelligence (EQ) in 1995, it has been extensively studied by Harvard, Yale, Learning in …
One of the most common questions I get after delivering a keynote on emotional intelligence (EQ) to mid-level managers is: “How do I get my senior leaders to recognize the importance of EQ?” This tells me that this human-centered approach to leadership is not often embraced by senior leaders — even though we now have decades of data that shows that EQ results in high-performing teams and an elevated service experience. It’s a shame EQ is not …
A foundation of how I live my life and the work I do, whether I’m facilitating an EQ leadership training or coaching high-performing executives, is Radical Responsibility. Radical Responsibility is eliminating any blame or excuses and recognizing that you are fully responsible for all the outcomes in your life. Your joy and success are not determined by who is elected this November, where you grew up, who your parents are, the industry you’re in, or …