I remember some years back Dad gave me a copy of Daniel Goldman’s seminal work called Emotional Intelligence. It was a fascinating read and Catherine has since devoured it as well. The field has continued to develop since then and now there are many companies offering workshops in it and how to apply it to the workplace. Last summer we had one such company – I think better than the average company teaching this stuff- come and do an initial 2 day workshop with us. The fellow, from Guelph, who taught us was really good. They put things in place to help us see our individual needs, integrate what we learned and carry it forward into our daily lives.
For those of you who haven’t heard too much about emotional intelligence, let me give a few quick insights. There is now a recognition that IQ only measures one kind of intelligence, and in fact that are several different areas that a person needs to be intelligent in. Other areas include kinesthetics, or where your body is in space and time( I am kinesthetically impaired, athletes or dancers tend to have a lot of kinesthetic intelligence) and social intelligence. As I am sure you have observed in real life a person can be really smart intellectually but be a bumbling idiot socially or emotionally. People who are quite bright intellectually but not socially or emotionally tend to be ineffective employees and leaders, hence the move to teach the skills in companies. The thing about is that you can learn it- although the older or more practiced your current neural pathways are, the harder it is. It is all based on neuroscience and what we have discovered about how the brain works. You look at how you respond to old fears, perceived threats, conflict, challenges, asking for help etc etc.
Anyways, although I am fascinated by it and took what I had learned back and shared it with my co-workers and some of the patients, I have already forgotten some of it, as there were so many new things to learn last year. So this year, as part of my yearly learning plan mandated by the College of Nurses, I plan to revisit it and really integrate the learning in a way that I can sustain. So I will probably write about it again here from time to time over the coming months. I hope this helps make me more accountable to follow through too!
Kristine