All About Emotional Intelligence from Six Seconds

Presentations for October Conference

Please take a look at http://6seconds.org/c2c - you can now download the list of presentations. As you can see, this is an event where "real people" are sharing success stories of how emotional intelligence is helping to improve results in business, education, gov't and community orgs, healthcare, and for individuals.

"Choose to Change" peer-to-peer conference - Oct 3-4, 2008 - San Jose, CA

Registration & lodging info are also available on http://6seconds.org/c2c

See you there!

Assent, Dissent, Descent

Recently...

I told Emma (8-year-old daughter) she needed to get dressed to go. Instant protest, heel-dragging, power struggle. Yet we were going to do something she wanted!
I observed a new cross-functional team starting up. The person assigned to schedule the first meeting asserted, "Since no one else wants to, I will chair the team." People rolled eyes and crossed arms (mostly hidden!). Yet she was right -- no one else wanted to chair.
I was presenting at company and I told participants to discuss their ideas from a worksheet with the person sitting next to them. A few evaluation forms were quite negative, some said that I was "making them share to much." Yet they all said they wanted to get closer as a team.

What's the common thread?

When people feel pushed, they defend.

EQ on NBC's Today Show

Six Seconds' COO, Joshua Freedman, appeared on NBC's Today Show to discuss how emotional intelligence helps relationships (clip below). The segment's focus is "keeping emotions in check," which Freedman says is just the start.

"People often ask how to 'control' emotions, which illustrates a critical issue in our thinking about feelings," Freedman says this paradigm leads people to a perpetual stuggle with themselves. "Instead, if we start valuing feelings as a wonderous source of insight and energy (rather than something nasty to control in a cage), we can have a healthy relationship with our own feelings." This is a starting point, Freedman contents, to a profound level of self-mastery.

Then rather than fighting for superficial "control" of something distracting or overwhelming, emotions become invaluable allies. For more on this topic, see Freedman's article "Fight or Flow." Then take the SEI assessment for a benchmark of how you are using these key competencies.

Emotional Intelligence Conference

Choose to Change: Emotional Intelligence in Action

Oct 3-4, San Jose CA - Six Seconds' Peer:Peer Conference

Choose to Change is a "peer-to-peer" conference where "real people" dialogue to share what’s working in emotional intelligence implementation programs in business, education, and community. Presentations will come from leaders together with practitioners sharing a "case history" of their experience and results with EQ.

Get details on the conference and call for presentations.

New Study Shows Emotional Intelligence Reduces Stress and Predicts 66% of Key Su

Researchers found that healthcare professional high in emotional intelligence are far more effective in a number of key performance areas including stress management, showing that these skills are critical for healthcare professionals – and especially those in leadership positions.

Feeling Finder

How do you really feel? And what does it mean?

Our new "emotoscope" helps you scope out and understand your feelings. Why? One of the first competencies of emotional intelligence is emotional literacy: the ability to identify and understand feelings. This opens the doorway to using them intelligently.

The Emotoscope is completely free @ 6seconds.org/feel - and even cooler on Facebook where you can post your feelings and share them w friends - check it out!

AND - if you like this - be sure to see the eMotion cards in the EQStore - using the same fabulous faces.

Six Seconds in ASTD's Training & Development magazine

New article on emotional intelligence features discussion with Six Seconds' COO, Joshua Freedman, sharing how and why EQ is key for businesses. Emotional Notions - Emotional intelligence is becoming a part of many organizations’ core competencies for high performers.

"A decade ago any talk of emotional intelligence would draw strange looks. Now many organizations include it among core competencies required for high performers."

Go to our Press Room for an excerpt or to download the article.

Forgiveness Overpowers Hate (from Urban Dreams)

Urban Dreams: Stories of Hope, Resilience and Character is a compelling collection of essays written by students in an urban community in New Jersey. The essays are the encapsulated life stories of their authors, writers from urban elementary, middle, and high schools who were given a chance to reflect on their own lives and articulate their Laws of Life: strong values and principles that guide them in everyday decision and actions. Here is one of the essays.

Forgiveness Overpowers Hate

Anonymous, 11th grade

Most people live their lives based on hate that they have for others. They believe that the only way to survive is to hold up a wall of hate, not letting anyone in but themselves. A lot of people think that their law of life is hate. That is all they have ever learned. Personally, my law of life is “Forgiveness.” I think the only way to survive is to forgive. It is the key to happiness.

Many people took the time to learn how to forgive. I took the time to observe how they felt before they forgave someone and how they felt afterwards. My mother showed me that being a bigger person is being able to forgive. Throughout my mother's life she never practiced hatred. She showed love for anyone she thought needed it. She always told me “If you see someone who feels nothing but hate, pray for them. And hope that one day some kind of happiness comes into their lives.” She thought that to hate someone is only to hate yourself. So I'm trying to change my ways, so I can be at a better place, and be able to put my self in a better surroundings.

Emotional WHAT? Definitions and History of EQ

Is it really an intelligence? How do we know, and what is an intelligence anyway?

Touted as the key to educational and corporate success, is EQ really just another “flavor of the month”?

There are half a million web pages on “emotional intelligence,” and everyone wants to claim the “right” definition -- so how many definitions do we need?

While you could read all 486,000 web pages, EQ Today asked the world’s top experts and researchers to explain emotional intelligence. The conclusion: There is an intelligence based on emotion, and people who have this capacity are less depressed, healthier, more employable, stronger leaders, better decision-makers, and have better relationships.

New Emotional Intelligence Blog

Want to stay up-to-date and connected with EQ thought leaders? Our new blog is on www.6seconds.org/blog

Subscribe to the blog via RSS - http://www.6seconds.org/blog/?feed=rss2
(or if that makes no sense to you - just visit often! )