while en route to your neo-cortex can cause you all sorts of problems!

Last week I was in San Antonio Texas giving a breakout session for NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatcher’s Conference on getting results with no authority.

A key point to know is how your brain reacts to threats.  We feel before we think. Emotions come before thoughts. Your thoughts normally progress from your amygdala to your neo-cortex.  Your amygdala houses your emotions and your long-term memory.  Your neo-cortex holds your logic and your short-term memory.  When your thoughts stop at your amygdala and stay there, several things happen:

• you have a slowdown in your thought process, which can last up to 20 minutes
• continuing on this destructive path, toxins can remain in your system for up to four hours
• as long as these toxins are in your system, especially the first 20 minutes, the more likely you are to relive the emotional event

One way to keep your emotions in check is to remember

It’s not what they said, it’s what you think you heard

The most recent Supreme Court Justice appointee has been getting a lot of publicity, as expected.  These Justices handle perhaps the most difficult judgment cases in the United States.  This is where all appeals end.  Depending on the viewpoints of the Justices, their decisions could actually change the climate of these United States.

This latest nominee is said to have a lot of empathy

Obama had said he was looking for a nominee who demonstrates empathy and “intellectual fire power,” as well as possesses the “common touch.”

Now I agree that “intellectual fire power” is necessary.  After all, they are ensuring that everyone is playing by the same set of rules:

“But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.”

Empathy – the ability to accurately comprehend and appropriately respond to others’ feelings, thoughts and needs, expressed or not – is a necessity in today’s world … to motivate, inspire and empower all levels of Corporate America.  Empathy, one of the key Emotional Intelligence elements, adds oomph to momentum and propels it towards success.

Do I want an empathetic US Supreme Court Justice on the bench, making decisions and perhaps bending our laws just because someone tugs at her heart strings?  Just because they themselves have been in that position, or know someone that has, and wants to give them a helping hand?  What if the same situation applied to someone else — of another race, religion, wealth level? Would those ‘revised laws’ apply to them?

Leaders in Corporate America need empathy … US Supreme Court Justices need to know and uphold the law.  And have the internal fortitude to do that – despite their own personal feelings.

Shari is certified in Emotional Intelligence, and speaks on increasing your EI level.  For more information on Shari’s programs, email Shari@CornerStoneStrategiesLLC.com

I recently took an emotional intelligence assessment on-line. It was an interesting assessment … I find many of these to have some statements that can be interpreted several ways.  Here were my challenges:

I get bored with many activities and hobbies

Now does this mean that I get bored if I have many activities and hobbies underway simultaneously? Or I get bored with a large number of activities and hobbies; in other words, not many activities and hobbies can hold my attention? The ambiguous word here is ‘many’. What number constitutes ‘many’?

I use free time to learn things that might be useful in the future

Here the ambiguous word is not ‘might’, it’s ‘useful’. Useful for what? The future. That is a very broad word. I had someone tell me that in Stephen Covey’s 2 x 2 model [important / not important / urgent / not urgent] that nothing she did was in the not important / not urgent quadrant. Even when she played computer games. She believed that everything she did was important or urgent in some way.

I sometimes tell lies if I have to

Well gee. Does this include me telling a colleague that I don’t care where we go to lunch when I really do? Or that I agree with their decision when I don’t? And how do we quantify ’sometimes’? Aahh that’s the topic for another blog entry….

It isn’t what I read, it’s what I think I read.