How to Look for Emotional Intelligence on Your Team Of all the ways to test for emotional intelligence, the marshmallow test might be my favorite. You put a child in a room, set one marshmallow in front of her and explain that, if she’s able to wait 10 minutes before eating it, she’ll get an extra marshmallow to enjoy. Then you leave her alone. If the child can hold off, it means she has is able to self-regulate — a key component of emotional intelligence. And, as psychologist Walter Mischel has famously shown, this translates into long-term benefits. Of course, this test only works on small children; few adults would have trouble resisting the first marshmallow. So how do we assess emotional intelligence in working adults? First, understand what you should be measuring. At our firm, Egon Zehnder, we have identified six frequent EI-related competencies necessary for leadership success, based on our decades of experience evaluating executives and monitoring their performance. Reference checks should be conducted in the same manner.
Wisdom Networks! Opportunity? What? Why? Where? How? | Wisdom Networks Wisdom Networks crowd create Network Society and accelerate the Wisdom of Crowds (r)evolution for health, education, equity market, innovation, organisations, countries and regions. Everyone can see and act on every “thing”, everywhere, anytime. Telewisdom accelerates “The Shift” to the next stage of economic development by organising people, processes and things across the “Internet of Everything”. Opportunity? The reality is that global startups are created fast – sometimes in a weekend sprint. What? Wisdom Networks organise the wisdom and effort of the community by exchanging wisdom (knowledge plus action) between people via mobile devices. THE SHIFT! Information is everywhere, but there is no wisdom. Where? Social networks achieved global telewisdom in social communities in 7 years. How? Wisdom Networks put all 6 elements of wisdom in the cloud (not just 2) and come “Over the Top” (OTT) to aggregate and provide telewisdom for every thing in the “Internet of Everything”. Next steps?
The One Thing Every Great Leader Cares About Most Today I was reminded in a potent and somewhat painful way that leaders have a truly awesome responsibility. When leaders speak, others are obligated to listen. When leaders direct, others are obligated to follow. It’s the nature of positional power. And because formal leaders have positional power, every leader who aspires to greatness should strenuously, passionately, and vigilantly guard against abusing that power. Irresponsible communication is a form of abuse “Abuse” is a strong word, and not everyone is comfortable with it. But shoot, I’m not everyone. It’s true that anyone can be wrong. However, the kind of leader I’m talking about engages in this harmful and counterproductive conduct repeatedly, unrelentingly, and unrepentantly, even when confronted in a respectful and damn-near loving manner, because he or she has forgotten what every great leader should care about most, and that’s the impact on other people. “No man is an island” and all that jazz Yes (gasp!) Anyone can do good
Why define your exit goals well ahead of a transaction? | Equiteq Edge There are many ways you can end up selling 100% of your firm, or some of your stake in it, but will the end result fulfill the things most important to you and yours? If you haven’t identified your goals, then the shape of the deal you ultimately sign may cause great future regret. “If only I’d done this or that” will forever be a thought imprinted in your mind. So the purpose of this blog is to help you formulate your goals by identifying typical owner aspirations. If you do this, then the route-map to the transaction and the terms you sign are more likely to deliver the rewards you want. You only usually get one shot at building a business and selling it, with significant life changing outcomes, so the sooner you define your exit goals, even years ahead of a deal, the better. Let’s start by categorizing typical aspirations. Your aspirations may be simple, for example: Price is everything, I just want the highest price I can get as soon as possible. Or it may be a blend: Like this:
To Create a Real Connection, Show Vulnerability - Michael Simmons by Michael Simmons | 11:00 AM May 9, 2014 The hardest part of my business failing was not the loss of the business. It was the loss of the identity that came with being a successful entrepreneur. I had become so attached to this identity that when others asked how the non-existent business was doing, I said, “Great!” The chasm between the image of being financially set for life and owning a failed business was painful. When I finally got up the courage to start telling the truth, I could feel a weight lift off my shoulders. In his highly cited research, University of Georgia social psychology professor Abraham Tesser found that when someone close to us outperforms us in a task relevant to us, it often threatens our self-esteem. My personal experience matches the research. In talking with Dr. While I had always looked at this mechanism as a negative force in society, Dr. He and his research team paired students who were strangers.
10 Ways to Teach Innovation Getty By Thom Markham One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking. The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum. This is hardly the case, as we know. Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Teach concepts, not facts. Distinguish concepts from critical information. Make skills as important as knowledge. Form teams, not groups. Use thinking tools. Use creativity tools. Reward discovery. Be innovative yourself. Related
5 Ways To Measure The Emotional Intelligence Of Your Boss Research has shown us that more than 90% of top leadership performers have a high amount of emotional intelligence or EI. The higher up the ladder that leaders are, the more people they impact and their EI becomes increasingly important. The person at the top sets the atmosphere that permeates the organization, including the emotional temperature. Not only does a leader with low emotional intelligence have a negative impact on employee morale, it directly impacts staff retention. Below are five ways to spot an emotionally intelligent boss. 1. Insecure leaders that demonstrate low EI become defensive and take it personally whenever they encounter anything that appears to them as criticism and a challenge to their authority. 2. Leaders who are oblivious to their own emotions and how they are impacted by them have no awareness of how their words and actions affect others. 3. 4. Good leaders make themselves available to those reporting to them both physically and emotionally. 5.
CO-OP THiNK Can You Really Improve Your Emotional Intelligence? - Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Who wouldn’t want a higher level of emotional intelligence? Studies have shown that a high emotional quotient (or EQ) boosts career success, entrepreneurial potential, leadership talent, health, relationship satisfaction, humor, and happiness. It is also the best antidote to work stress and it matters in every job — because all jobs involve dealing with people, and people with higher EQ are more rewarding to deal with. Most coaching interventions try to enhance some aspect of EQ, usually under the name of social, interpersonal, or soft skills training. The underlying reasoning is that, whereas IQ is very hard to change, EQ can increase with deliberate practice and training. But what is the evidence? Nearly 3,000 scientific articles have been published on EQ since the concept was first introduced in 1990, and there are five key points to consider: Everyone can change, but few people are seriously willing to try. 2. 4) Some techniques (and coaches) are more competent than others.
The New Art of the Possible | Knowledge Insights Embracing new technology and having an open and curious mindset is the key for not only growth but survival in every industry today. I cannot think of one industry that has not felt the distributive effects of new technologies and the rate of social adaptation. I deliberately don’t call it adoption as this is a term for “Systems of Record”. We now have “Systems of Engagement” (thanks Geoffrey Moore) and they are defined by our social interaction and creativity. I recently read a fascinating post by Ayelet Baron that brilliantly encapsulates the essence of what we are seeing. Ayelet asks these disruption questions: Are you in a dying industry? In her vision of the future of work and the blurring of industry lines, Ayelet makes a comparison between what’s happening in the music industry and publishing. Here is Ayelet’s full post: Debra Fox Like this: Like Loading...
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here's How To Tell What makes some people more successful in work and life than others? IQ and work ethic are important, but they don't tell the whole story. Our emotional intelligence -- the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others -- can play a critical role in determining our happiness and success. Plato said that all learning has some emotional basis, and he may be right. The way we interact with and regulate our emotions has repercussions in nearly every aspect of our lives. To put it in colloquial terms, emotional intelligence (EQ) is like "street smarts," as opposed to "book smarts," and it's what accounts for a great deal of one's ability to navigate life effectively. "What having emotional intelligence looks like is that you're confident, good at working towards your goals, adaptable and flexible. The five components of emotional intelligence, as defined by Goleman, are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social skills and empathy. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Valuation As A Scorecard When you set out to build a great company, it’s hard to know how you are doing along the way. There does come a time when you know you’ve done it. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Salesforce, Tesla, etc got there. We know that. But two years in, three years in, four years in, it’s hard to know how you are doing. So entrepreneurs want something they can hang on to. And that thing is often valuation. Valuation can also be used to compare how you are doing against your friends. Valuation is an entrepreneur’s scorecard. I hate the word unicorn. This obsession with valuation as the thing that tells you and the world how you are doing has a dark side. And the markets can move on you and one day you are worth $2bn and the next day your are worth $500mm. The message of this post is don’t let yourself get sucked into a world where a number is your measure of self worth. Measure yourself on whether your employees are happy. But please don’t measure yourself on valuation.