6. FEELINGS TUTORIAL
CORE POSITIVE IMMERSION ABSTRACTS


    An attitude of HIGH self-esteem coupled with HIGH self-efficacy can radically change your ability to achieve your work goals and live your "signature values" because it is empowering. Your library organization owes you a work environment that is empowering, which means your supervisor's evaluation of your work product must include respect for your professional values and be based upon objective criteria, not subjective attitudes!

    A new approach to performance evaluation is to focus attention on both the employee's and the supervisor's Emotional Intelligence or "EI" or Emotional Quotient "EQ" as an essential element of successful performance.



[1] UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORK

    1) "Emotional Intelligence" or "E.Q." is the behavior of employees who are:

      (1) Independent --- Each makes a unique contribution to job performance.

      (2) Interdependent --- Each draws to some extent on certain others, with many strong interactions.

      (3) Hierarchical --- The "emotional intelligence" capacities build upon one another. For example, self-awareness is crucial for self-regulation and empathy; self-regulation and self-awareness contribute to motivation; all the first four are at work in "social skills!"

      (4) Necessary, but not sufficient --- Having an underlying emotional intelligence ability does not guarantee people will develop or display the associated competencies, such as collaboration or leadership. Factors such as the climate of an organization or a person's interest in his
      or her job will also determine whether the competence manifests itself.

      (5) Generic --- This general list is to various extents applicable to all jobs. However, different jobs make differing competence demands.

    2) "Emotionally Intelligent Organizations:"

      (1) All organizations have an "intelligence" of sorts, just as do the groups and teams within it! Intelligence is the capacity to solve problems, meet challenges, or create valued products. In this sense, "organizational intelligence" represents that capacity as it emerges from the complex interplay of people and relationships, culture and roles within your organization.

      (2) All organizations are "cybernetic," which is being engaged in continuous and overlapping feedback loops. These "feedback loops" gather information from within and without and adjusts operations accordingly. Systems theory assumes that in an organizational environment of turbulent change and competition, the organization that can take in information most widely, learn from it most thoroughly, and respond most nimbly, creatively, and flexibly will be the most adaptive.

      (3) This principle applies to all organizations, big and small. It points to the crucial role of "information flow" throughout the organization in determining its viability, which is its "INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL!"

        Intellectual capital is the sum of what everybody in the organization knows and knows how to do! do! It is what gives your organization its "competitive edge" or motivation and drive to succeed in its mission!

      (4) The basic business practices found by the Saratoga Institute, in a study of 600 businesses regarding the characteristics of OUTSTANDING companies, were these eight common characteristics of "emotionally intelligent" organizations:

        1. A balance between the human and financial sides of the company's agenda

        2. Organizational commitment to a basic strategy

        3. Initiative to stimulate improvements in performance

        4. Open communication and trust-building with all stakeholders

        5. Building relationships inside and outside that offer competitive advantage

        6. Collaboration, support, and sharing resources

        7. Innovation, risk taking, and learning together

        8. A passion for competition and continual improvement

    3) The "economics" of collaboration --- one for all:

      (1) A need to achieve

      (2) Building with integrity

      (3) The "cardinal sin"

      (4) When help is wanted

      (5) A human radar:

        1. Buidling working relationships --- Being a team player; having self-confidence, presence, and style; being empathic and a good listener; having the ability to sell an idea; maturity and integrity.

        2. Getting things done --- Being a self-starter, with drive, energy, and a sense of urgency that gets results; showing judgment and common sense; being independent, entrepreneurial, and imaginative; having leadership potential.

        3. Personal fit --- Having the qualities of a friend, colleague, and partner; being honest and adhering to one's values; being motivated; being sociable, with "sparkle" and a sense of humor; modesty; having a full personal life and outside interests; understanding the firm and its values.

Book Source: (Working with Emotional Intelligence)



[2] ACHIEVING "EMOTIONAL LITERACY" AT WORK

You can become more sensitive to your own "emotional needs" on a daily basis! The ideas are based on a practical version of Transactional Analysis!

1) "Emotional literacy" consists of three abilities:

    (1) The ability to understand your emotions

    (2) The ability to empathize with the emotions of others

    (3) The ability to express your emotions in a productive way

2) What is "Emotional Literacy Training?"

(1) Emotional Literacy Training consists of guided learning exercises which can give you the information you need to express your feelings in better ways. It maximizes your "personal power" and improves the quality of your life and your relationships with others.

(2) Your "Emotional Quotient" (= E.Q.) or "Emotional Intelligence" can be improved through proper training. The postponement of gratification is a major "emotional skill" which can be learned!

Book Source: (Achieving Emotional Literacy)



[3] ULTIMATE BUSINESS RESOURCE ---
YOUR EMOTIONAL I.Q. AT WORK!


Introduction to book Business: The Ultimate Resource explaining the expanded definition of business intelligence called "Emotional IQ" by its developer, Daniel Goleman. (pxxx-xxxii)

1) The need to know

2) Business literacy --- and wisdom

3) About the author

4) See also --- "Emotional Intelligence"

Book Source: (Business --- The Ultimate Resource)



[4] EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS
THE UNTAPPED EDGE FOR SUCCESS AT WORK


Book Source: (Emotional Intelligence at Work)



[5] THE ASSERTIVE LIBRARIAN

1) ASSUMPTIONS:

(1) Assertiveness training is based on the theory that your behavioral responses are learned rather than instinctual! Therefore, you have control over the responses you wish to learn, unlearn, and select for use!

(2) Assertiveness training's most distinctive characteristic is its practicality! The "models" of behavior that are defined as "ASSERTIVE" are part of a wide-range of alternative behaviors available to every professional librarian as a matter of choice! They are adaptable and adoptable as they fit each librarian's unique personal value system, philosophy and style!

(3) Assertive techniques are specific, definable, understandable and workable!

(4) The assertiveness techniques are not intended to justify a "standard package" of presumably assertive "bureaucratic tricks" that can be used in a manipulative fashion without regard for the long-term interpersonal (organizational) effects that they may produce. This book was written to be eminently practical since it presents assertive techniques as a repertoire of possible alternative behaviors which a librarian can select based upon the professional perceived needs of each individual situation, time and place.

(5) Finally, no single style of behavior can be effective for all times, in all places, for all people! Assertiveness is assumed to be a "continuum of behaviors" of varying stengths and designs, which can be employed in a variety of library situations.

1) SUMMARY

(1) Assertiveness means feeling good about yourself, making your own decisions, and taking responsibility for your choices!

(2) It is not difficult to learn assertive skills. However, it can be difficult to learn to implement them regularly.

(3) It takes practice, perseverence, and objectivity --- and effective feedback!

(4) Assertion is not aggression! It is direct, honest, appropriate expression of opinions, beliefs, needs, or feelings.

(5) It is rational and based on objective, cognitive assessments of reality.

(6) It is a way to survive in a difficult world as a healthier, happier, and more effective person --- and librarian!

(7) Your responsibility --- as a librarian --- is to modify the skills and comments in this book to fit your own personal style in ways that will help you effectively stand up for your rights while protecting and maintaining the rights of others.

(8) Your further responsibility is to use this book to build and maintain good interpersonal relationships and actively enhance your interpersonal communications!

Book source: (The Assertive Librarian)



[6] LEARNING "PEOPLE SKILLS"

Listening and assertion are the "yin" and "yang" of communication. They are very different but complementary and interdependent parts of relationships. Just as there are skills for developing one's ability at listening, so there are skills for increasing one's assertiveness.

Each individual has a personal space which needs defending. Likewise, you have a psychological need to impact on others and the world. Assertiveness training teaches constructive methods of defending one's space and impacting on others.

One way of understanding assertion is to see it in contrast with submission and aggression. There are payoffs and penalties for each of those ways of relating. A primary goal of assertion training is to enable people to take charge of their own lives.

Authentic assertiveness helps employees avoid repeating dysfuctional and stereotyped behaviors so that they make a fitting response in the situation in which they find themselves!

Impacting with the "Submissive-Assertion-Aggression" continuum

    (1) Submissive behaviors

    (2) Agressive behaviors

    (3) Assertive behaviors

    (4) The swing to the opposite style

    (5) Placing yourself on the continuum

    6) Payoffs and penalties of three ways of relating

    (7) Choose for yourself!

Book Source: (People Skills)



[7] A TRUTH THAT INFLUENCES FEELINGS IS THE HEART OF CHANGE!

Getting to the "heart" of how to make change happen:

    Most leaders don't handle large scale organizational change well. They make predictable mistakes and they make the mistakes mostly because they have little exposure to highly successful transformations (i.e., the adoption of new technologies, major strategic shifts, process reengineering, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings into different sorts of work units, attempts to significantly improve innogation, and cultural change.

The single most important message of the research is:

    People change what they do LESS BECAUSE THEY ARE GIVEN ANALYSIS that shifts their thinking than because they are SHOWN A TRUTH that influences their feelings!

    This is especially so in large-scale organizational change, where you are dealing with new technologies, restructurings, new strategies, cultural transformation --- whether in an entire organization, an office, a department, or a work group.

    In an age of turbulence (change), when you handle this reality well, you win. If you handle it poorly, it can drive you crazy, cost a great deal of money, and cause a lot of pain!

    The lessons come from two sets of interviews, the first completed seven years ago and the second within the last two years.

    1 ) Increase urgency

    2) Build the guiding team

    3) Get the vision right

    4) Communicate for "Buy-In"

    5) Empower action

    6) Create short-term wins

    7) Don't let up

    8) Make change stick

We see, we feel, we change!

Book Source: (Heart of Change)



[8] LOOKING FOR SPINOZA --- THE "FEELING BRAIN"

Taking the varied kinds of emotion in consideration, a working hypothesis of "emotion-proper" can be created in the form of a definition:

    (1) An "emotion-proper," such as happiness, sadness, embarrassment, or sympathy, is a complex collection of chemicals and neural responses forming a distinctive pattern!

    (2) The responses are produced by the normal brain when it detects an "emotionally competent stimulus" --- an "ECS," the object or event whose presence, actual or in mental recall, triggers the emotion. The responses are automatic.

    (3) The brain is prepared by evolution to respond to certain ECSs with specific repertoires of action. However, the list of ECSs is not confined to those prescribed by evolution, since it includes many others learned in a lifetime of experience.

    (4) The immediate result of these responses is a temporary change in the state of the body proper, and in the state of the brain structures that map the body and support thinking.

    (5) The ultimate result of the responses, directly or indirectly, is the placement of the organism in circumstances conducive to survival and well-being!

The classic components of an emotional reaction are encompassed by this definition, although the separation of the phases of the process and the weight accorded to those phases may appear unconventional.

Book Source: (Looking for Spinoza)



[9] FOLLOW THIS PATH --- HOW THE WORLD'S GREATEST ORGANIZATIONS
DRIVE GROWTH BY UNLEASHING HUMAN EMOTIONAL POTENTIAL


Book Source: (Follow This Path)



[10] AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS AT WORK

Meaning and purpose:

The "good life" consists in deriving happiness by using your "signature strengths" every day in the main realms of living. The "meaningful life" adds one more component, namely, using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness!

A life that does this is pregnant with meaning. If you believe in science and democracy and worship "life itself," your life is sacred and can be filled with happiness!

Book Source: (Authentic Happiness)



[11] THE EMOTIONAL ENERGY FACTOR

HOW IS YOUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY?

1) Hell with other people's expectations!

    [1] Too much to live up to

    [2] You made the jail, and you hold the key!

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 1 --- Stop buying into someone else's expectations for you!

    [3] The gift of freedom

    [4] Setting yourself free

2) Giving yourself a life filled with meaning

    [1] The meaning of your life cannot be taken for granted

    [2] You are in charge of the meaning of your life!

    [3] How to give your life meaning

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 2 --- Take responsibility for finding meaning in your life!

      SPECIAL ISSUE --- HOW EMOTIONAL ENERGY WORKS!

        [1] The battle for emotional energy

3) Prayers that really work

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 3 --- When you pray, have a real dialogue with God and talk to Him about the ways in which you would like to be a better person!

    [1] Why active prayer works!

4) "I did it my way!"

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 4 --- Whenever you hit a pocket of freedom and make good use of it, you will feel like a kid let out of school on a warm spring afternoon. The more pockets of freedom you take advantage of, the more energy you will have!

      SPECIAL ISSUE --- YOU, THE UNIVERSE, AND YOUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY!

5) See yourself having emotional energy

    EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 5--- Give yourself energy by visualizing yourself having emotional energy!

6) Do something really new!

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 6 --- Do something new!

      Doing something new is the catalyst. It does not really matter what you do that is new, and it does not have to be something big , since doing something big can be scary and difficult.

      The key is this --- If you would not ordinarily do it, it is new enough for you! New things give big hits of emotional energy fast!

      SPECIAL ISSUE --- FIRST AID WHEN YOUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY CRASHES!

    See yourself having emotional energy!

    Ten "first-aid" remedies that work to stop your "emotional energy crashes!"

7) What are you looking forward to? --- Emotional Energy Booster #7!

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 7 --- Always have something special to look forward to!

8) Why should a barrel full of monkeys have more fun than you?

      SPECIAL ISSUE --- EMOTIONAL ENERGY AND WEIGHT LOSS!

9) Don't get stuck with your losses

10) Envy is poison

11) Guilt is stupid

      SPECIAL ISSUE --- FIRST AID WHEN YOUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY CRASHES!

12) Keep your flywheel spinning!

13) If you do not get help, you are doing it wrong!

14) Bring something beautiful into your life

25) The more you give, the more you get! --- Emotional energy booster #25

      EMOTIONAL ENERGY BOOSTER # 25 --- The most magical way to get emotional energy is by showing your love for the world --- one person at a time, one patch of ground at a time!

    [1] The magic of giving

    [2] How to get energy by giving love!

Book Source: (Emotional Energy Factor) [12] LOOKING FOR SPINOZA --- THE "FEELING BRAIN"

Book Source: (Heart of Change)



WHAT YOUR EMOTIONS ARE?

Emotions are the most immediate, the most self-evident, and the most relevant of our orientations toward life.

But from the moment the question of defining the meaning of "emotions" is taken seriously, troubling difficulties of description arise!

    1) Answers from cognitive psychology

      [1] Emotions and color

      [2] Emotion and cognition

      [3] Emotions, goals, and mental control

        (1) Valence, intensity, and goals

        (2) Mental control

      [4]Thus an individual cannot fashion or refashion just any emotion or any set of emotions he or she wishes.

2) Answers from anthropology

3) Emotional expression as a type of speech act

4) Emotional liberty

    [1] Liberty and history in the anthropology of emotions

    [2] Coordination of goals and emotional navigation

    [3] Emotions and political regimes --- emotional liberty, emotional sufering, emotional effort

    [4] Political evaluation of case material

Book Source: (The Navigation of Feeling)



[13] YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE LUXURY OF A NEGATIVE THOUGHT

Book Source: (You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought)



Return to: Feelings Issue --- Resource List
Return to: Leadership Proposal Essay
Return to: Home Page Index