Attention is caring – it requires suspending our focus on ourselves and placing our awareness on the “other.” Indian philosopher, Krishnamurti wrote that “to pay attention means we care, which means we really love.” By fully attending to others in our world, we let them know they are important and at that moment, a priority. […]
Guest Blog Post By Laura S. Scott Imagine you’re a team member tasked with a highly complex problem and your boss tells your team, “Failure is not an option; we are under close scrutiny from the executive team and we only have one chance to get it right. And if you mess up like we […]
by Gerri Vereen Trust is like the air we breathe. When it’s present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices. –Warren Buffet Among all the attributes of the greatest leaders of our time, one stands above the rest: They are all highly trusted. You can have a compelling vision, rock-solid strategy, excellent communication skills, […]
Perfectionism is sometimes justified as having high standards. No one brags about low standards. You go too far when you become consumed with “getting everything right” and lose your sense of priorities. Think about your most challenging current project, and what it would take for you to be happy with your work on it. Are […]
As the year winds down, it’s important to review how you are doing in relation to goals you have set, professionally and personally. A great way to get feedback from others in your environment is to conduct your own informal “360.” It’s a highly effective tool to develop self-awareness and get input on how others […]
Improving your EI is about managing your inner response to things and choosing a new way to handle your inner reaction to people and situations. For example, Bob is a leader who has little impulse control and in meetings or even in casual interactions, he would frequently interrupt others to make his point. Worse yet, […]
The biggest reason leaders fail is not intelligence or IQ, but lack of emotional intelligence or EI. Fortunately, EI is developable; IQ isn’t. Research shows that the leadership art of influencing others to achieve common business and organizational goals is based on inner strengths, the ability to build mutual satisfying working relationships, effective decision-making and […]
One of the keys to building confidence is making mistakes and even failing. You learn from taking risks especially if some don’t work out. Challenging experiences help to bolster your competence and seed confidence. Experiencing failure, especially when you are young, can forge a life-long habit of resilience. People, who learn from failure instead of […]
Some are able to say “no” to a request or opportunity and feel good about it. “This just isn’t the right fit for me” or “I don’t have the bandwidth right now – I hope you understand” are ways they opt out confidently. Others avoid saying “no” altogether because they don’t want to jeopardize a […]
Empathy alone is not enough. As someone who has studied empathy for many years, first in graduate school and now as an executive coach and facilitator, it is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for communication and change. Empathy is the ability to experience what it must be like to be in another’s emotional […]
