October edition of the Transformation Times newsletter. Great tips and ideas to attract more results faster for your own business or profession.

1. Transformation Times “Does your Emotional Intelligence really
matter?The reason I ask this question is that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has been around as a term since the 1990’s and many business
individuals may be thinking this ‘pop psychology’ is now out of date and not so relevant in our digital age. Good point - but my
answer to that is we need it even more than ever. As more individuals spend their time heads down looking at a screen we are
losing some key leadership abilities that make up EQ such as ‘empathy’. Recently a twenty year study at a US university came to
an end, which proved that ‘empathy’ had substantially dropped off with college graduates during this time period.
Let’s get straight to the point, EQ is not some soft fuzzy thing that is nice to have it’s a key ingredient on getting hard, bottom
line results. Improve your EQ, improve your results. But how do you do this? The challenge is that ‘soft abilities’ are often hard
to do so many individuals are afraid of working on this for fear of exposing their weaknesses to their colleagues. It takes real
courage to change in grained habits and attitudes that have been embedded over many years. The good news is you can
change them.
The great thing about EQ is that it is directly linked to performance and it can be measured. Tell me one person that does not
want to improve their own performance. Unfortunately EQ is not a quick fix. You can not change you or your teams EQ in a two
day workshop alone it also needs on going coaching for at least four to six months afterwards with a coach that has a higher
level of EQ than you (or your combined team EQ).
So who benefits most from improving their EQ? Everyone, although in particular Leaders and top sales professionals as it’s
often easier to measure their results. As the saying goes – managers do things right, leaders do the right things. When you
want individuals in your business to step up and do the ‘right things’ then it makes sense to develop a ‘leadership culture’ rather
than a management one. EQ is one way to create this type of culture.
So the ‘key issue’ is this. Do you want to perform better and attract more results? If so, then tune in and I shall give you some
tips on how to boost your EQ and accelerate your career and / or business. Daniel Goleman, the psychologist who popularised
EQ identified eighteen different competencies that make up an individuals EQ. I have chosen one for this month to focus on that
is essential to master. It is called ‘Emotional Self-Awareness’ - “Recognising how our emotions affect our performance”.
So what is the best way to recognise what emotions affect your performance? If you are struggling to get your head around this
then one tip is to ask someone you know (that you believe has a high level of Emotional Self-Awareness) for some suggestions
on what you need to do ‘more of’ so that you can start to make a shift. Then focus on taking daily ‘action’ steps on what they
suggest over the next thirty days so that you can embed this and create a new habit.
the
Oct ‘16
Regards, Robert Ferguson