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 [...]
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 [...]
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[...]
“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 [...]
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[...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A man asked Rabbi Hillel to teach him the entire Torah, the five books of Moses, while standing on one foot. And Hillel did. "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That's the whole Torah," he said. "All the rest is commentary. Now go and study." This story about Rabbi Hillel (I picked[...]
Darwin's versions of "grief" are kind of limited. We can be more creative than that. There is good evidence (for example, here and here) that describing your emotions with greater precision (sometimes called emotional granularity) improves both resilience and performance. So try using more [...]
I was recently chatting with a program manager friend of mine about emotional intelligence. He astutely pointed out that pride can be one of the biggest emotional pitfalls for development teams. For smart people, who are being paid to be smart and have achieved success by being smart, it is so easy[...]
When I use the phrase "emotional intelligence" I want to emphasize that: Emotional intelligence is a partnership between emotions and reason, not domination of emotions by reason Emotional intelligence is a set of skills that can be learned, not a fixed and inherent personality trait [...]