Social Awareness

To me Emotional Intelligence is one of the most precious gifts one can posses. Daniel Goleman has this lovely model that captures it all.

Goleman and others also talk about this in youngsters and I observed a classic example yesterday. Whilst in a waiting room Thomas (the two and a half year old super star I keep going on about) saw a little girl come in and sit down. Her eyes no more than flicked across to a kids chair the other side of the room. Thomas intuitively went over and took the chair to her. This sounds kind of obvious but not really. Firstly he ‘thin sliced’ from a flick of her eyes what she wanted (if you don’t know what thin sliced means you must read Blink) then he had the motivation to act on it. Needles to say he was a big hit with the young lady even though they didn’t speak the same language – or perhaps they did! How many adults do you know would respond this way?

Teamwork

I have just come back from 4 days sailing on the West Coast with my neighbour and friend Richard on board his fantastic boat. It was very much a mixed weekend weather wise however on Sunday night the wind blew up and both teamwork and technique were bought into play to take us to our anchorage for 19.30

We arrived safe and sound to hear on the radio a Mayday alert for a yacht in distress the other side of Mull (read the BBC report here). Fortunately the lifeboat got to them and everyone was fine.

However as we heard the drama unfold and reflected on the trip we had just made I was minded that although at times teamwork is nice, in other situations it is essential and the ability to engage quickly as part of a team imperative. I wonder if in organisations people see this imperative and the self interest often served in playing the role of a good team member.

Just Being

I was reading last weekend of how many people dry up of ideas in writing their blog. I was thinking this was about to happen to me – what epiphany had I encountered this week and to be honest I struggled.

Then I reflected on what the week had brought:
Hearing the ‘wee man’ string a good few words together at once
3 days learning and delivering some pretty neat stuff on Six Sigma Yellow Belt
An interesting day on culture and change in St Helens using some new material
A day of coaching which I always enjoy
Getting my bike fixed after 18 months
Doing and passing the course for my DSC radio in the boat (technical stuff!)
Getting the balance finally sorted on the car wheels
Reading a book about bringing up boys that has been insightful
Catching up with an old friend it was great to have dinner with and sharing some exciting ideas
Really enjoying the longer evenings and some great walks
Also quite a bit more

The conclusion I have come to is that on reflection ‘just being’ can be a pretty enriching experience in itself – make the most of it!