You Cannot Shrink to Greatness: Enriching Your EQ

In a age of so much complexity, the frequent urge is to step back, simplify, and refocus. This is sometimes useful; often it is not the response needed to move forward. A protective response has its purpose though it often works against building for the future. While it is true that many individuals want to keep using the skills and capabilities they’ve enriched over time, these same behaviors may not serve them so well in a significantly altered environment. Say that the company for which you are working is bought by a competitor who really wants to do business differently and the skills you’ve developed over 15 years are no longer so prized in the new organization. What if your job is phased out and suddenly you have to find a way to show how your skills are relevant? It is important to have a learning plan and to be on the look-out for skills to leverage and capabilities to enhance, even if these are in “hot” demand at the moment. What is true in the vast majority of situations, however, is that we get comfortable with our interpersonal relationships and our way of dealing with things which simply haven’t been put to the test. The “iron thread” that runs through all of this—resilience in complexity and change, developing the capacities for the future, and super charging our relationships—is our EQ. You can identify the key elements of emotional intelligence that you can enrich that will allow you to grow into your current and future challenges. Join us to learn how.