Performance

Working From not For

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This is my third and final post reflecting on Dutch Sheets’ The Pleasure of His Company. Chapter 29, “The Connection,” was the highlight for me. Maybe because he references Old Testament characters I’ve been reading about the last few weeks. But I’m pretty sure it’s because he drills down on a topic I’ve been chewing on, again, for the last two weeks. What matters more, who you are or what you do?

That’s not really his intention, but that’s where it goes. And, for the record, he doesn’t really give you an answer. Here are my four highlights for illustration:

  • “At times, the most spiritual thing we can do is the most natural and practical. Work is practical yet very spiritual; feeding hungry people is, as well; nurturing our children is practical, time-consuming, tiring-and very spiritual. Keepin’ it simple is sometimes keepin’ it spiritual.”
  • “To be holy doesn’t mean being separate ‘from sin,’ but rather ‘unto God’…Holiness isn’t sinlessness.”
  • “…strength lies not in the perfection of my outward performance but the connection of my inward heart.”
  • “There’s a vast difference between performing for acceptance and performing from acceptance.“

There’s a noticeable difference when a relationship has shifted to from away from for. Sometimes others can see it better than you; sometimes not. If you’re really not sure, the best person to check in with is your Creator. He knows what it means to live from illustrated by instructing Moses to tell everyone, “I AM sent me.”

Go with what He tells you. If He says your offering brings him pleasure, that’s all you need. You’re in good company.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (book review)

/ johngregoryjr / 2 Comments

Looking in the mirror-sometimes you like what you see, sometimes you don’t. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is a look in the mirror of how you deal with emotions.

The daily challenge of dealing effectively with emotions is critical to the human condition because our brains are hard-wired to give emotions the upper hand (chapter 1).

Travis Bradberry and Jean Graves have done more than just put a mirror in our emotional face. They’ve given us something to do when we walk away from the mirror to improve the next look in the mirror. They provide access to the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal which reveals your standing in four skills making up your EQ: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. 

EQ is so critical to success that it accounts for 58% of performance in all types of jobs. It’s the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence (chapter 2).

After succinctly giving the big picture of EQ, the four skills, and how to develop a personal EQ action plan in the book’s first four chapters, the final four chapters offer 66 strategies of what you need to say, do and think to increase your EQ. Most likely, your EQ is raised just by reading this content. 

The only way to genuinely understand your emotions is to spend enough time thinking through them to figure out where they come from and why they are there (chapter 3).

When you don’t stop to think about your feelings – including how they are influencing your behavior now, and will continue to do so in the future – you set yourself up to be a frequent victim of emotional hijackings (chapter 6).

What you see in the EQ mirror is most likely the product of skills that don’t come naturally to you. If you desire to improve these skills, this book and the resources at the author’s website give you what you need to like more of what you see in the EQ mirror. They recommend reading this book and reviewing the skill development strategies at least once a year-a good recommendation.

Feedback: What do you know about EQ and how important would you say it is?