Free Resources and Articles

September 25, 2021

GUIDELINES FOR JOURNALING

There's no right or wrong way to keep a journal. You don’t need expensive equipment. The tools are a notebook—whether a special blank book, a composition book from your local drugstore, or loose-leaf pages—and a pen you enjoy.

August 28, 2021

HOW DEFENSIVE ARE YOU?

Sometimes our defensiveness can get in the way of great self-awareness and deeper relationships with others. How defensive are you? Reflect on the ten following questions or inner thoughts and see if they show up in conversations you have from time to time.

August 21, 2021

EQ AT THE MOVIES THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (2006 SONY PICTURES)

The Pursuit of Happyness takes us through a roller coaster of emotions and is an amazing vehicle for teaching us some of the central tenants of emotional intelligence.

August 7, 2021

HOW PRESENT ARE YOU?

The following are 20 reflection questions to assess how present are you are in daily life. It is important that we ask them in a spirit of curiosity rather than judgement.

July 24, 2021

ARE YOU LIVING IN SYNC WITH YOUR VALUES?

Fulfillment in life and work is related to how well you are living in alignment with your values. Values are not morals or principles. They are the essence of who you are—not who you think you should be.

July 10, 2021

10 REFLECTION QUESTIONS FOR LEADERS/MANAGERS

The foundation of great leadership and management is self-awareness. The temptation of any new leader and manager is to “do” things when more reflection is what might be required. Here are ten questions which can be used to grow you awareness.

July 3, 2021

EQ AT THE MOVIES INSIDE OUT

Every now and then there comes a movie that speaks to us on many different levels. One of them is Inside Out. As with many Pixar movies, on the surface it seems to be a wonderful children’s tale about our emotional lives except it speaks to everyone no matter what their age.

June 26, 2021

5 SENSE STRESS REDUCTION

Our five senses are the primary means through which we experience the world. From time to time, our experiences with our senses can be stressful. However, our senses can also be used to do the opposite and help us come to a more relaxed state. Here are examples for each of the senses:

June 12, 2021

FINDING HUMOR

Being humorous is not easy. It takes work. Perhaps the biggest mistake that people make is inserting a cheesy joke at the beginning of a presentation and ticking the humor box.

June 5, 2021

DEALING WITH STRONG EMOTIONS MINDFULNESS PRACTICE

Otto Scharmer, senior lecturer at MIT and founding chair of the Presencing Institute, has said that “holding space is the single most important leadership capacity going forward.” Holding space here means the ability to sit with any difficult situation and not rush to impose an outcome or find a simple fix to it.

May 29, 2021

CREATING A STORY VAULT

Within you is a treasure trove of precious gold. It is the stories of your life and your experiences. These stories are the raw material that are available to you as a leader to use in a multitude of situations. It can be very helpful to have a systematic way to capture and store your stories.

May 22, 2021

WHO IS IN MY CIRCLE

Who is in your circle of friends? How diverse is it? Why are these important questions? Research has found that the wider the diversity of our universe the more empathy we feel toward people who differ from us

May 15, 2021

THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

What is Emotional Intelligence? This simple graphic explains it.

May 8, 2021

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A DIFFICULT CONVERSATION

Difficult conversations can drain us emotionally and physically. It’s very easy to put them off. The issue of course is that the problem does not normally go away and indeed it can get worse.

May 1, 2021

7 WAYS MANAGE FEEDBACK AT WORK

There are times when feedback can be difficult to hear. In these situations, it is only normal that it is difficult to listen. We all have our own listening blocks and it important to know which ones we normally default to.

April 24, 2021

WHAT ARE MY CORE VALUES

Life is full of choices. Some are big choices which have huge consequences and others are small choices we make every day. However, most choices are guided by our values.

April 17, 2021

VISUALIZATION EXERCISE FOR EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS

Visualization is an imaginative technique that involves picturing in your mind how you will act doing a certain activity and the final outcome of that activity. The practice incorporates techniques that elite athletes have used for many years to visualize the outcome of their event.

April 11, 2021

CHARACTER EMOTIONS

We know from research that the higher the level of empathy of a leader the stronger their overall performance. One of the ways to increase empathy is by reading fiction.

April 3, 2021

MINDFULLY ENTERING HOME AND WORK

Every day we work there are two main movements in the day. We move from the world of home to the world of home and then back home again. It can be helpful to be very intentional about these two movements.

March 28, 2021

GETTING ON THE BALCONY

Getting on the Balcony is a metaphor first used by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky to describe the ability of a leader to see the bigger picture of what is going on around them.