Why do some people respond aggressively when faced with uncertainty?
Why do others close themselves off in doubt and fail to react?
Why are some people driven towards change and others terrified of it?
We do talk a lot about emotional intelligence, social intelligence, soft skills that are essential for healthy relationships with ourselves, our families, our friends, at work and in the marketplace. Today, it is not enough to be able to do your job well, to stand out you need to pay attention to “how” you do it, how you relate to the external environment, how you achieve your goals, how you interact with others, how you influence others, how you are!
Emotional intelligence is an aspect of intelligence related to the ability to recognise, use, understand and consciously manage one’s own and others’ emotions.
Our brain is divided into two parts:
– the left side is responsible for logic, language, strategy, rationality, rules…
– the right side governs creativity, empathy, freedom of expression, intuition, chaos, emotions, sensitivity, curiosity…
Our school system tends to train the left hemisphere a lot.
Most people don’t train the right side sufficiently, we don’t make full use of our intelligence!
We are able to access emotional intelligence when we know ourselves and how we function, when we are able to recognise our own emotions, recognise those of others and be in relationship. When we are able to listen to ourselves.
I know very high performing people who achieve outstanding results using only the left side of the brain. Is that wrong? No, but it is a shame. If you can get great results using half your brain, just imagine if you used the whole brain!!!
Reality is one, but each of us perceives it differently: as if we were wearing coloured lenses of which we are often unaware. These metaphorical lenses I am referring to depend on our way of being in the world, on our character.
Emotions are an integral part of us, which is why it is so important to know, experience and express them. Knowing how to recognise, accept and manage our emotions allows us to grow, to mature, to take responsibility. To be free.
Faced with the same stimulus we react in very different ways: the richness of working in a group allows us to observe diversity and enrich our point of view, to broaden the range of emotional nuances.
Let’s start with ourselves, let’s recognise our own colour palette, only in this way will we be able to relate to others in an authentic way.
This is the basis for developing empathy, a subject we will address next week.
Think about your purchases: how many of them correspond to a real need?
How many are emotionally driven actions? How many things do you buy to make yourself feel better?
When I am invited to lead a workshop in marketing or consumer psychology course, I always start with the basics, a good workshop to discover the relationship you have with Fear, Sadness and Anger.
Recognising through which lens we see the world helps us a lot in understanding our character. Bringing awareness to the prevailing emotional nuance helps us to accept it, embrace it and thus be free to experiment with other modalities.
What do we do with our emotions? Let’s start with this article here, and then delve into your relationship with Fear, Sadness and Anger.
Only when we have acquired the ability to move in and out of these three nuclear emotions is it possible to experience joy, authentic Joy!
I really hope you find these readings useful, let me know what you think.
I look forward to the next one, with an extra bit of authenticity!
