» Sunshine and showers

… from emotional intelligence at work

Newsletter 36 : 9 june 2010

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Greetings
Welcome to our newsletter. We like to offer a change from other newsletters which can demand an awful lot of reading.

Emotional intelligence in the workplace problem of the week

“I work for a company which is very enthusiastic about promoting people who work hard and are well qualified. Without wanting to blow my own trumpet too much, I have both attributes. However, several of my co-workers seem to envy me and are giving me the cold shoulder. I assume it’s because I have a lot of things going for me and, of course, everyone is jealous of the person who has been there the least amount of time, but who gets promoted quickest. I am very ambitious and keen to do well, but I don’t want to alienate myself from everyone. How should I deal with such a situation?”

Before you read Jeremy Bullmore‘s answer [scroll down to “I’m a victim of my own success…”] what would you advise? Incidentally, we don’t agree with the answer, on the grounds that it is hard to not do something. (For example, don’t think of a purple spotted orange. There! You’ve done it. And, if you hadn’t done it then, you have now.) We suggest it might be more helpful for the questioner to adopt a different, positive approach, for example applying the leadership principle: “make the other person more important than you.”

Quotation of the week

Music is an outburst of the soul

Frederick Delius, composer (died 10 June 1934)

Songs of the week

Mary Chapin Carpenter is often unfairly labelled as a country and western singer. In fact, her songs have infinitely more subtlety, poetry and depth than that and what is interesting is that, although she writes in a self-imposed restricted style, over and over again she finds little novelties and felicities with which to grace her songs. These two are among forty or more excellent songs she’s written. This is a recreation of smalltown America, and here is a remarkable evocation of memory. The Queen of Bittersweet. (dur: each 4-6 min)

Dose of reality of the week

One of our precepts is “Deal with the world as it is, not as you would like it to be”. (Because it is the way it is, however much we want it to be – or believe it ‘should’ be – something else.) Why do people see the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich or hear demonic lyrics in Stairway to heaven? Using video and music in this TED talk, Michael Shermer shows how we convince ourselves to believe otherwise. (duration 13:29)

Another quotation of the week

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

Alexander the Great (died 10 June 323BCE)

Lunch of the month

emotional intelligence at work sponsors and hosts the Bristol NRG lunch.

If you’re uncertain about how to get the maximum from networking, contact us to discuss bespoke coaching in your networking technique. A short coaching programme will pay for itself as soon as you put on clients.

The next Bristol events are on 17 June, 15 July and 19 August at Berwick Lodge (near Cribbs Causeway) which offers an excellent light lunch in elegant surroundings. The June prelunch seminar is “So tell me, what makes you think I can refer you?” by Jill Green, a senior trainer at the Referral Institute.

Just go here to book. NRG is offering readers of this newsletter who are new to NRG £5 off a lunch at Berwick Lodge: enter the promotion code NRGKMCM.

Contributions always gratefully received.

If you have been, thank you for reading.
Kay and Jeremy