Part 2
In Part 1 of the Awareness Pillar (Pillar 3 of Effortless Leadership series), we spoke about the power of external awareness. We touched on the subject of Emotional Intelligence as we ventured into the area of internal awareness.
The EI report I mentioned is quite an amazing tool and I do run a one day workshop on emotional intelligence which covers the power of achieving this awareness in detail. It includes the emotional quotient report for each participant. It’s quite an amazing workshop and the breakthroughs that teams and leaders get from this are ground-breaking. Immediate turnaround from broken and ineffective teams to calm and cohesive culture. It’s so fulfilling to see this happen.
Today we do not have the time to go through all the exercises one can do to develop a state of awareness and emotional intelligence, but I will list four for you here.
- Empathy
The first is exercise the art of Empathy. Put yourself in the shoes of the person you are dealing with and tune into how they are feeling. Listen closely and let the person know you care.
- Body Language
Always remember that communication is not just about the words you use, it is the body language and gestures etc. that go along with it. Ensure your body language and words are in sync.
- Calm the Mind
Every hour pause and get in tune with how you are feeling and what you are sensing. And if needed, take 6 breathes, as deep in and out as you can go, to the count of 6 each way. Taking this further, practice meditation for 15 minutes daily. Follow the complete mindset coaching Gold Coast.
- Reframe
Reframe any situation to consider how someone else would have perceived it. Because we all have 100% unique perception of any given situation. In fact, each person reading this article is having a different experience and perception. Always remember to try and reframe from the other person’s perspective before you say anything.
- Understand Your Personality Profile
Knowing more about your personality type gives you powerful insight into your strongest motivators, biggest challenges and powerful strengths. That discovery is a short-cut into better managing your emotions and having powerful awareness.
As I said, this is just the tip of the iceberg here. In addition to our emotional intelligence workshop, we provide a profiling workshop which is packed with amazing secrets, tools and exercises on how you can become super aware and completely in charge of your behaviour. You also learn how to successfully help others achieve greatness! I can run these as a 1-2-1 session with my clients or for teams and executive retreats.
And if you’re wondering about the commercial practicality of emotional intelligence and personality profiling, then consider this: many CEOs running Fortune 500 corporations use these tools. That includes Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Warrant Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and John Donahue of eBay. And also Oprah Winfrey of… oh, she doesn’t run a corporation but you may be familiar with her work! They all articulate the immense leveraging benefit and results that an emotionally intelligent culture and dynamic has contributed to their worlds and organisations.
Ok, so next month I will cover our fourth pillar, but before I finish I’d just like you to note one very powerful fact which relates to internal and external awareness. This fact is that one of the basic laws of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), is called the Law of Requisite Variety. That law basically states that the person with the most options and behavioural choices controls the system they are operating in. Another way to put it is the person with the most flexibility in a group will have the strongest influence. Now think of that and everything we have been talking about so far. In general, the person with the most flexibility in a group is the most aware person within that group and therefore will have the strongest influence.
Thanks for reading, and please be in touch with us at Leader House if you’d like to understand how to hold that influence!
