• joe@jhanderson.biz   
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  • Why team personality assessments aren't quite enough

    Psychological frameworks are a fascinating feast. There’s a huge number of items on the menu, including contemporary psychometrically validated tests like DISC, widely used profiling tools like Meyers-Briggs and the Enneagram, practical workplace-oriented assessments like StrengthsFinder, and [...]

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    What you don't know about your respiration rate may hurt you

    Have you had the experience of being skeptical about something until someone you respect causes you to change your mind? I have been a little suspicious of the notion of “wearable tech” (c’mon, my phone isn’t enough of an intrusion on my peace of mind?). But my colleague Chris Cancialosi of [...]

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    4 team habits that boost psychological safety

    A compelling piece of recent research about team effectiveness comes from Google’s Aristotle Project. It’s among the best and most thorough investigations of what makes corporate teams work well together. The key finding was that the number one predictor of team effectiveness is “psychological[...]

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    Why plans are useless - but necessary

    “Please see me.” If you’ve ever seen those words written on a term paper, or had them texted to you from your boss, then you know the sensation of dread that goes with them. There are other kinds of dread, too, that come with the words “we need to talk,” or “I’m very disappointed in [...]

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    Getting feedback? How to identify the 10% that matters

    Self-awareness is not just a solo activity: you need input from others around you. Of course, your thought-stream is most likely telling you: “You don’t need any information from anybody else! You can totally handle this on your own!” That’s why we love the thought-stream: it’s always very[...]

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    3 emotional intelligence tips every team needs to know

    The term “emotional intelligence,” popularized by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book of the same name, has come into common use in organizational life. It is a good thing that emotions are being more widely recognized as part of human experience—even at work. But, as often happens with popular [...]

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    The best way to work emotional awareness into your day

    Even if you make your living with your head, you can’t afford to disregard your body. My dad was the first person in his family to go to college. His father and brother spent much of their lives working in lumber mills, roofing, and doing other manual labor, but my dad realized that he’d much [...]

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    How your past affects your present, and what to do about it

    My wife was once rescued from a perilous highway situation by a kind stranger driving a red pickup truck. When she sees a red pickup today, she still experiences a feeling of gratitude! Your emotions are made of two things: the sensations in your body, and the story you’re telling yourself about [...]

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    Is your inner pinball machine holding you back from self-awareness?

    The first time I walked into a pachinko parlor in Japan the experience was almost overwhelming. Colored lights were flashing everywhere. There was an incredible roar of bells and buzzers and music and the rattle of thousands of little steel balls. After I’d been there for a while, though, some [...]

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    Here are some video clips from the Emotional Intelligence for Technology Delivery class I offered last week. First, an overview of how mindfulness relates to emotions, change, and teamwork: In the next clip I define mindfulness (the key concept that underlies emotional intelligence) in [...]

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