• User AvatarMiriam McKenzie
  • 13 Dec, 2020
  • 0 Comments
  • 1 Min Read

Half Way There!

Half way through December and we are all quite probably still working, and quite probably working really hard to meet deadlines. Team work is really important here. We need our colleagues and our families to help us out if we are feeling under pressure. Recognising different personality and communication styles can go a long way to making challenging situations a little easier. So does empathy. Knowing how our words affect others and treating others as we like to be treated goes even further.

Emotional Intelligence (a phrase coined by US psychologists Peter Salowey and John Meyer), Emotional Competencies and bringing these to work during stressful times (or even not stressful) will pretty much ensure the rest of the year will go way more smoothly with better results for your organisation, than if you choose to leave these at home.

Emotional Intelligence Competencies are personal characteristics that contributes to outstanding performance in a particular job within a specific organisational context. They include self-awareness and self-management, which allows us to exercise some self-control. Social awareness competencies leads to empathy; understanding what others are saying and feeling and why they feel and act the way they do. Relationship management competencies aids us to get the results we want by working with or through others.

By bringing all these attributes to the table leads to organisational performance at a very high level. Emotionally intelligent leaders have the ability to maintain an effective, high-performance culture, even in times of stress.

Back at home once the work day/week/year is done use your EI competencies as an adult to help your children mature as empathetic people. Talking to them, making eye contact, answering their questions, reading to them. These activities are what children value most, way over and above gifts.

Give your children (if you have them of course) or any child you know, the gift of your time this year. There is screeds of research around this and I am happy to give you some links to studies but most recently the University of Auckland conducted a survey of 1000 children aged 5-13 about their experiences during lockdown and over 80% of them said being home with their parents was what they valued most.

If you would like more tips or techniques on how to help your children with their speech email me and I will support you with some free resources.

Nga mihi, Miriam.