DRIVEN Blog
Re-Leasing Your Life: The 2 Greatest Strengths You’re Not Embracing
As part of DRIVEN’s yearlong exploration of my 2019 Word of the Year— “Release”, we’re ExperiMenting with a special blogging format. At the beginning of each month, I’ll offer a thought, feeling or behavior that makes sense to release. Later in the month, I’ll dig into how to reframe the thought, feeling or behavior in order…
Reframing Perfectionism: Three Steps Toward Being “Perfectly Human” at Work
Perfectionism is a condition, a trap, and a self-imposed state of shame that affects many of us, often unbeknownst to us. It also happens to be a consequence of inevitably coming up short when our expectations were unrealistic in the first place. In my recent article Perfectly Human: Evading The Trap…
Perfectly Human: Evading The Trap of Perfectionism
The word “perfect” is a superlative. When it’s not being used to describe the ultimate in sophisticated cocktails— the Perfect Manhattan, it translates to “second to none, ideal, flawless, impeccable, the ultimate”. As such, the word can never (another superlative) be used in reference to oneself. This is…
A New Lease On Life: Discover My 2019 Word of the Year!
Before my 2019 Word of the Year is revealed, give yourself a gift: Take a momentary tour of your consciousness and assess your emotional state. Start by inhaling deeply. Go on. Pull the air through your nostrils. Does it tickle a bit? Is the air cold or warm? Feel how the air fills your lungs. Notice how…
DRIVEN’s Best Blog Articles of 2018, Part 2
Last week, we gave you a sampling of some of our most informative blog articles of the year (if you missed it, link to it HERE). Today, we’re back with four more significant DRIVEN posts from 2018, each offering advice, direction and food-for-thought designed to enhance your career regardless of what stage you’re…
Conversation, Ongoing: The Back-and-Forth Circuit of Workplace Feedback
Making the shift from anxious to excited has revealed itself to be the formula for a curious mindset. Once you’ve made the transformation (which fits into the rare category of simple and easy), your emotions will stabilize, grooming you to receive workplace feedback constructively and without impediment by…
Openness To Influence: The Factors To Consider Before Receiving Feedback
At the very end of my most recent article Listening to Understand: A Social Skills Staple Examined, you were challenged to experiment with four prompts during your conversations to more effectively “listen to understand” and to remain open to influence. Were you able to stand under another’s reality without…
Put‘er There: The Social Skills Behind Our Most Common of Greetings
Since human relationships are directly tied to culture, it makes sense that refined social skills are vital for a healthy work environment. Culture dictates our sense of safety and acceptance, which directly impacts workplace productivity and engagement. In my recent article Clever Conversation: The Positive Effects…
Clever Conversation: The Positive Effects of Social Skills on Office Culture
After months of exploring the nooks and crannies of Emotional Intelligence, it’s time to tie up this concept into a neat little package. To do so, I’ll attempt to emulate an admired college professor’s talent of pulling themes through. This professor always amazed and amused me by spending 75 minutes lecturing about…
A Well-Oiled Mind, Part 2: More On Emotional Wellbeing Through Self-Compassion
Plain and simple: A functional mind equals a sharp and creative professional who’s prepared to meet the challenges of a multi-dimensional career. Such a professional is experiencing a high level of emotional wellbeing with a strategy of compassion at her core. In my recent prequel to this article, I illustrated…
A Well-Oiled Mind: How To Achieve Emotional Wellbeing Through Self-Compassion
Our recent look at self-compassion focused on tending to one’s mind— you know, that crucial piece of equipment we rely upon as knowledge workers yet inflict abuse upon without remorse. I must confess that I don’t think Kristin Neff was referring to our mental energy when she wrote, “Self-compassion involves…
A Self-Compassion Primer: Mental Energy Maintenance Through Staying Present
You may have noticed that DRIVEN has been spending some serious time on the topic of self-compassion. Why, you may ask, is self-compassion so crucial to a professional’s success? The answer resides in neurochemistry. If you're not kind to yourself, you can't show true compassion for others. When you…
Cracking The Kindness Code: The Quest To Define Self-Compassion
In our exploration of emotional intelligence, the big questions lately have been, “How do we develop compassion?”, and more specifically, “What is the magical ‘fourth step’ that bridges us from empathy to the mutually beneficial state of compassion?”. In a past article I offered you some insight into the first three…
Evolution or Revolution?: A Darwinian Take On Compassion
In our quest to understand empathy as a pure and fundamental component of emotional intelligence, it’s necessary to make the comparison between empathy and compassion. In my recent article Reconsidering Empathy: The Neuroscience of Compassion, I clinically differentiated between the two words as…
Reconsidering Empathy: A Look At The Neuroscience of Compassion
In our methodical exploration of empathy, which is one of the key components of emotional intelligence, we’ve distinguished empathy from sympathy, and we’ve considered ways to zoom out from our own life perspective in order to contemplate the countless other points of view in this big world. In my latest…
“You’re Not Alone.”: Why Practicing Empathy Requires Going Inward
Understanding the components of empathy and how they connect us emotionally and intellectually is a distinguished exercise in emotional intelligence. Putting empathy into practice is a whole different ballgame and is a true accomplishment for those of us who can pull it off and sustain these skills throughout…
“If I Understand You Correctly,….”: How The Pros Put Empathy Into Practice
All summer long, we’ve been examining empathy as part of a greater overall study of emotional intelligence in the workplace. We’ve distinguished empathy from sympathy, we’ve demonstrated how empathy applies to your career, and we’ve shown the undisputed connection between one’s bias and their personal…
Gauging Your Personal Microclimate: How Bias Can Be Elusive
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It’s been said a million times and was written about extensively by John Gray in his 1992 book of a similar title. And if you read my recent article What Planet Are You From: Dissecting Gender-Derived Bias At Work, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how…
What Planet Are You From? Dissecting Gender-Derived Bias At Work
Personal bias is a tough topic to approach. Even those of us who can acknowledge that we see the world through the filter of our own life experiences are still often unable to reckon with our partiality. We sometimes see bias exclusively as a shortcoming, when in actuality, it’s an inevitable part of the equation that…
I Feel Your Pain: An Empathetic How-To For Today’s Professionals
Workplace harmony depends upon some specific EQ tenets, not the least of which is the ability of colleagues to Empathize with one another. Such Empathy is the root of inclusion and is essential for creating trust— without which there is low productivity and substandard office functionality. In my recent article…