» Twelfth night

… at emotional intelligence at work

Newsletter 47 : 6 january 2011

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Happy New Year!
Welcome to our latest newsletter. We like to offer a change from other newsletters which can demand an awful lot of reading.

Video of the week

In this remarkable TED talk – poignant, funny, compelling – Brené Brown talks about wholeheartedness, control, and being open. Essential viewing (dur 20:20)

Leadership precept of the week

Feel the fear, and do it anyway ®

In this wellknown saying, Susan Jeffers observes that it is the fear of doing something that is the problem, not the doing of it. One of her main points is that the fear is largely a learnt behavioural response to the situation, not a psychological issue. emotional intelligence at work suggests viewing the fear as being apprehension at moving out of our comfort zone.

But outside our comfort zone is the ‘stretch zone’: a place where we can actively develop and mature as we tackle realistic challenges. This is not a place of stress, it is a place of adrenalin, maybe, and of some constructive tension, maybe. But it is a place where the more times we visit it, the more comfortable we are in it and, before we know it, our comfort zone has extended into that area, pushing the stretch zone further back.

Of course, once one has felt the fear and done it anyway, there is just something else we have to feel the fear of, in order to do that. And so on. C’est la vie.

New year’s resolutions of the week

Be slightly overweight, don’t exercise too much and stop peeling your fruit and veg. Follow these seven simple steps to better health from Tom Smith.

Quotations of the week

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgement wage war against passion and your appetite *

Joy and sorrow are inseparable… together they come and when one sits alone with you… remember that the other is asleep upon your bed

Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other

Kahlil Gibran (b 6 January 1883)

[* Gibran is using judgement in its sense of discernment and assessment, not in the way we go on about it at emotional intelligence at work]

Website of the week

Spotify. In case you haven’t discovered it, this vast repository of music is free to listen to online (though, you’ll probably give in and pay £4.99 a month to be free of the ads – still good value for everything from driving party music to discovering all those songs of our teenage years).

Amusing video of the week

Santa shock. It’s twelfth night, so just time for this droll exposé by Dave Harries (dur 4:57)

Returning to work

A one day workshop with Kay McMahon, 19 January 2011, Bristol.

Do you know someone who needs to return to work after a career break? Perhaps they have had a baby and now need to support the family. Has their confidence waned? Maybe they’re not sure if it’s the right thing to be doing? This brand-new workshop, Returning to work, is supportive and caring and will help them deal with any issues and set their priorities so they know they’re doing the right thing.

Where next?

A one day workshop with Jeremy Marchant, 26 January 2011, Bristol.

Do you know someone who needs to find a new job? Or are they just stuck in a rut? Wanting a more rewarding career? Making the right change of job can only happen when they know where they want to be. Our new workshop, Where next?, will help people brighten up their thinking and clarify goals so they can be confident that the job-search can bring rewards.

Joint ventures between emotional intelligence at work and Pitman Training.

All contributions welcome.

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