How many times have you said that about someone? They either don’t have any idea on how they come across to people or they don’t know really how bad it is. Worse yet, they do know and they frankly don’t care. Or . . . what if they do know how they come across, and how bad it is, but they believe they don’t have any other choice but to respond that way because they blame it on the company, or people around them. It is enough to drive a person absolutely insane.

I have a better question: Do you think it’s even remotely possible someone has said that about you? Ouch.

There is hope! Well, at least theoretically. Emotional Intelligence isn’t really a “buzz word” anymore because anyone who really, truly, works with other people (and not just occupies office space with other people), knows that there very much is such a thing as self-awareness, self-management, others-awareness, and others management (better called social intelligence). We KNOW it’s true, and thankfully companies are paying attention to it, and really trying to improve their team’s overall EI.

If you still need convincing, don’t you wish your family had a little more EI? It’s December, and we just experienced family during Thanksgiving. Many of us only experienced the “nuclear” part of our family at Thanksgiving. However, you know Christmas is coming, or better said, you know THEY’RE coming. Yep, the extended co-habitors of your DNA. Scary, huh? You are not only going to wish for someone to create “Self-Awareness Nog” but you are going to need a Holly Jolly dose of Self-Management Cake to get through it all. You know, they used to say there was a black sheep in every family? Now, we are all struggling just to find the white one!

To get off of our self-righteous kick, let’s start the discussion of EI with the man and woman in the mirror, and then we’ll worry about helping the person in the office next to us (helping our family is an entirely different discussion).

There is no question on the validity of the concepts found within Emotional Intelligence. And that statement right there is where you begin the process of helping your team build their emotional intelligence. But it has to start with you, whether you’re the leader or not. All it takes is one person willing to be humble enough to ask for your team’s insight into how YOU can build your self-awareness, how YOU can manage yourself better (in tough situations – where your self-management is tested), and how YOU can be more socially intelligent on understanding your peers more and interacting with them more effectively.

If just one of you will be the martyr, you can break the ice of “unteachability” found in so many teams. It begins with first, the discussion of EI, and secondly, it takes root by one person being humble enough to ask the team one very important question: “How can I grow?”
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One of the most difficult aspects of leadership is trying to help a team member with a weakness when you don’t think they “get it”. They either don’t know they have that particular weakness, or they don’t know how bad it is. This webinar will help break up the tension by helping your team strengthen their Emotional Intelligence through Self-Awareness.

Learn more about Emotional Intelligence during our upcoming webinar. Join Dr. Greg Stewart, December 18, 2012 @ 10:00 am CST.
This is the third installment of our Emotional Intelligence series and Dr. Stewart’s webinars do fill up quickly. Spaces are limited so REGISTER NOW!