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Ain’t Emotional Intelligence such a cool thing?

I had a very personal example of recognizing a moment that required Emotional Intelligence today. I caught it and recognized it so suddenly that I decided to scrap an already completed article and write on this subject.


My experience today was quite timely. Last Thursday at the Stateline SHRM meeting, Chris Johnston – Leadership Development Consultant with Good Shepherd Hospital, gave a presentation on Emotional Intelligence and how it ties in leadership. It was a great topic.

Emotional Intelligence is by no means a new school of thought. As far back as 1990 with the publication of S.R. Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People [Simon & Schuster], you can see the culmination of social skills/responsibility, interpersonal relationship and self-awareness management begin to cultivate into what’s now known as Emotional Intelligence. Even more to the point is D. Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence [1995 Bantam Books]. If you haven’t already, check them out. Both are great reads.

So… yah… Emotional Intelligence has been floating around as this ‘thing’ for nearly 20 years. Everyone has it to some degree. And, probably like everyone out there, I love to think I have a very high EiQ … Emotional Intelligence Quotient.

And then there are days like today that knock my EiQ down a point or 2. … or 3 … or 4 … ok, fine … 5.


What happened…


I recently created a promotional video for Assured Staffing. Nothing special, just short quick and to the point. Part of the marketing plan for getting the message out included a written post with a link to the video via groups on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn portion of the marketing project started a few days ago.


Almost immediately I began receiving positive feedback. Cool. My ego was being stroked. I was receiving excellent validation that I had done a very good thing. 2 gold stars for me!


Today, I received an email that notified me of a response was attached to 1 of the group posts that was just down right negative. OMG! WTH! How dare he be critical of my gold star achievement!?!


For the 1st few seconds after reading it, I had the EiQ of a Soggy Tater-Tot!


Then a little switch in my head flicked on and made me ask, “why is this what he experienced when so many others experienced the opposite”. Why indeed.


I took a moment to re-read what he’d posted and then to look at it through the picture his words created. I got it. I understood where he was coming from.


Now I had an opportunity to share where I was trying to come from, and provide a little more clarification for him. I had the opportunity to accept and reflect his feelings from my own point of view. This could be a cool thing.


Via LinkedIn I shot him a private note in return and also posted a public response under the discussion thread just below his. I took ownership of his feelings about my original post, and frankly, agreed with him. Through his eyes, he was right.


I then explained why I did what I did and shared where I was coming from, giving him a little more clarification on my original post.


He responded in a most positive way via a public post. He was very appreciative of the fact that I was trying to use creativity, that I accepted his feelings and that I faced his post head on without becoming defensive. After a few more exchanges, he sent me an invitation to join his LinkedIn network.


For those of you not familiar with LinkedIn, it’s sort of a professional version of FaceBook where you network with other professionals. Invitations to become part of a network (sort of like a ‘friend’ on FaceBook) is generally something you earn via quality exchanges through group discussion forums.


In the end, as a result of my Emotional Intelligence switch flipping on, I earned turned a negative into a strong positive and earned a new connection resource.


Ain’t Emotional Intelligence such a cool thing?

Richmond Spring Grove Home & Business Expo

Finally! A lazy Sunday morning. Just what I’ve been needing after such a busy week that ended with the Home and Business Expo on Saturday Sept 12th. The Expo is produced by the Richmond Spring Grove Chamber of Commerce, www.rsgchamber.com, and is hosted by the Richmond Burton High School, www.rbchs.com, in Richmond IL.


My wife and I manned the Pawprints of Richmond table for owner Maureen M. Murphy. Well, my wife manned the table while I wandered around and took pictures and talked with a lot of interesting people. I did manage to tend the table, located just outside the front door, long enough to earn a bright red sun burn across my face 

I quickly learned that almost everyone that walked in and out of the Expo that day had already been a customer of Maureen’s having visited Pawprints at one time or another. Maureen is a big believer in and provider of holistic and homeopathic pet foods and pet health products. If you haven’t been in to see her lately, drop Maureen a note at pawprint@charter.net. Ask to be placed on her newsletter which includes current in-store specials as well as special events like her open house coming up on September

Unfortunately I couldn’t find an attendance roster of all the businesses that were there. I was however able to have a few great conversations with some quality folks. They were all very interesting…

****

Tim Boutin, Super-Hero (a.k.a owner ) of Hot Shot Graphix was kind enough to spend a few minutes telling me about his business. 1st and foremost, Tim’s goal is for Hot shot Graphix to be your Super-Hero in marketing and advertising success! “I love this business and enjoy helping others succeed” says Tim.

Hot Shot Graphix,s specialty is short-run custom high-quality printing that we design, create, and assemble or install on-site at our facility.

Check Tim and Hot Shot Graphix out at www.hotshotgraphix.com or shoot him a note at tim@hotshotgrpahix.com

****

I met Dorothy Vetrovec of Natures’ Feed. She was manning the booth while her husband TJ was home recovering from knee surgery. Get well soon TJ!

Dorothy took some time to tell me a little about Nature’s Feed. She explained that after 15 years in the software industry, she was a little disenchanted, bored. She and her husband really wanted to do something that incorporated their love of animals which includes their own family of yellow labs. Thus, Nature’s Feed was born. Need feed for your horses and other four legged friends, give Dorothy a shout at info@naturesfeed.net or visit www.naturesfeed.net

****

Master Bonnie J. Thiel, Head Instructor of Spring Grove Flying Dragons Martial Arts Academy & W.I.S.E (Women Initiating Safe Environments) was a pleasure to meet. I am familiar with martial arts having studied Shotokan in my younger days but wasn’t familiar with Kyuki-Do. Master Thiel gave me their business card explaining Kyuki-Do

It’s a martial art which combines Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Hapki-Do, the skills of Modern Wrestling and Boxing and the use of ancient weapon techniques.

After visiting their website, www.sgflyingdragons.com, I learned that Master Thiel is 1 of only 3 women to hold a 4th degree black belt within the American Kyuki-Do Federation and that she was awarded “Black Belt Woman of the Year” for her work with Women’s Self Defense. You can contact Bonnie or other members of the Spring Grove Flying Dragons at dragons@imaxx.net

****

I also talked with Carla Tammen of Fur The Love of Dogs. This unique dog daycare and grooming service provides full service grooming, self dog wash, obedience training, dog park/open play days and of course, daycare. If ever there was an animal lover (more so than my wife who just collected another cat), it’s Carla.

After a quick run down of her company’s services, she told me a little about Vest-a-Dog and Save-a-Vet. Vest-a-Dog is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the lives of K-9 police dogs through the purchase and donation of bullet and stab resistant vests. Save-a-Vet.org is dedicated to opening a facility in every state that provides both military and law enforcement the ability to retire their K-9 partners. These facilities will feature plenty of land for them to exercise with room and board. They will hire on retired, injured and disabled military and law enforcement veterans to work at each facility.

Fur The Love of Dogs supports both of these organizations and you can learn more about them at their web site, www.furtheloveofdogs.com Carla can be reached directly at clh199@hotmail.com
****

Wow – have you stuck with this and read all the way to the bottom of this blog post? I’m impressed! This was a long one.

I didn’t even tell you about Operation Click, the Richmond Police Citizens’ Police Academy, Gansters & Gin Joints, the Richmond Township Senior Transportation Program, the Senior Citizen Howloween Costume Hayride… This list could get as long as this post… So…. I’ll cover all of those things under different posts over the next few days. Thanks for reading!

Peter Gault for Topical Content © 2009

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