Leadership Perspectives

6 ways to build Emotional Intelligence

Marie Peeler

Some people seem to have been born emotionally intelligent. But what if you weren’t? Is Emotional Intelligence something that you can develop? Yes, absolutely! Indeed, there are people for whom EI (emotional intelligence) seems to come more easily. It certainly helps to be born into an emotionally intelligent family and to have good role models, […]

Why Emotional Intelligence is important for leaders

Marie Peeler

How important is Emotional Intelligence for leaders? You be the judge. A very unscientific poll that I conducted on social media recently asked participants to think of a leader that they admire and then to identify attributes of the leader that make them admire the leader or want to follow them. When we tabulated the […]

Emotional Intelligence: What is it?

Marie Peeler

Mention Emotional Intelligence and some people will start squirming – especially leaders and others that suspect that they might not have it! Sometimes, Emotional Intelligence is classified with ‘soft skills’, i.e. squishy stuff, but any discussion of the importance of Emotional Intelligence has to start with a common understanding of what it is. Academics and […]

The downside of failing to delegate

We are certain that leaders – at least on an intellectual level – understand the benefits of effective delegation.  Yet too many delegate too little.  Would we delegate more if we truly understood the impact of NOT delegating?  Perhaps. Here’s just a few of the consequences that arise out of a failure to delegate: You, […]

We all know what RESPECT is, don’t we?

I bet you think you know what respect means.  After all, don’t we all know when others are treating us with respect, or with disrespect? Have you been watching news coverage of the Aaron Hernandez arraignment?  If the Assistant DA’s version of the story is true, two men are dead and a promising career is […]

It’s about taking responsibility

Karen was a conscientious hard worker who cared deeply about the welfare of her staff and her clients.  A generally optimistic person, she was feeling miserable about “political” battles she was experiencing in her organization.  Besides distracting her and making her unhappy, the fighting was threatening to derail her career.  She’d tried everything to fight […]

Working sustainably: The magic of pausing

When someone refers to a sustainable workplace, do you think of environmental initiatives; installing blue bins for recycling, replacing disposable water bottles with water bubblers, or retrofitting lower wattage light fixtures?  If so, you are not alone. On a bigger scale, perhaps you think of sustainability as it is discussed on the world stage, in […]

Six ways to tell if your performance is being stymied by clutter

Is your office super streamlined, without a paper or knickknack in sight? Are your files – what few you keep – neatly organized, out of sight, and easily accessible? Do you know immediately where to find what you need to keep your projects on track, whether it’s the notes from last week’s staff meeting or […]

Seven things you can do to achieve your intentions

Now that we are more than a month into the New Year, I have to ask:  How many of you made New Year’s resolutions?  I don’t know the statistics but anecdotal evidence would suggest that very few people bother to make these annual pledges to themselves any more.  It seems that a lot of people […]

Leading creatively instead of reactively

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of CFOs and other financial executives about leadership competencies that allow us to work in a creative, generative mode. Using a simplified adaptation of a model that I use frequently to work with clients (developed by Bob Anderson of the Leadership Circle), I also […]