Balancing Head and Heart

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
& EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Gifted Leaders is all about bringing heart back into both our personal and work lives. For too long we’ve been expected to approach decisions using primarily logic, analysis, and left-brained reasoning. This is the status quo in American culture and organizational dynamics. The phrase, “it’s not personal, it’s business” sadly exemplifies this mentality.

Articles on Balancing Head and Heart (♥ = GL Favorites) :

Andy Pearson Finds Love by David Dorsey ♥
Once named one of the 10 toughest bosses in America, Pearson discovered how the human heart drives a company's success -- one person at a time -- and how this kind of success can't be imposed from the top but must be kindled through personal humility and employee recognition.
Another Look at Workplace Incentives by Alfie Kohn
Kohn maintains that "not a single controlled study has shown a long-term improvement in the quality of work as a result of any reward system." Rewards can't work in a significant way because of the problems that are inherent to the whole idea of extrinsic motivation.
Danger: Toxic Company by Alan Webber
Companies that treat their people right get enormous dividends: high rates of productivity, low rates of turnover. Companies that treat their people poorly experiences the opposite - and end up complaining about the death of loyalty and the dearth of talent.
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership from Linkage, Inc
While leaders rely on critical thinking skills to determine the best direction and the most likely strategies to get them there, they cannot move an organization to execute the strategies if they cannot first inspire others to follow them.
Getting a Handle on Employee Motivation by Anne Field
How do you keep people motivated and productive? One answer lies in the concept of "career anchors", a concept that says people are primarily motivated by one of eight anchors -- priorities that define how they see themselves and how they see their work.
Great Expectations by Edward O. Welles ♥
Many managers reflexively brag about how people are their company's key assets. Yet corporate words and deeds don't always match up. In managing for the bottom line, the human factor all too often gets pushed to the sidelines. Read about a company whose people matter above all else.
It Takes a Community by Neal Chalofsky & Mary Gayle Griffin
Profit is what organizations need to function in an economic system, but it's not a goal of a business enterprise. The most successful companies are values-driven and employee-friendly workplaces that, by the way, produce exceptional results.
Leadership and Emotional Intelligence by Carol Dell'Amore
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capacity to both understand and manage the emotions of oneself and of others. EI is a combination of competencies that fall into four clusters ... self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Leading Resonant Teams by Daniel Goleman ♥
Great companies realize that emotional engagement is the key to developing productive employees and the most profitable relationships with clients. They pay particular attention to the "emotional economy" in the workplace and set up conditions that cultivate emotional bonds with employees and clients.
Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders
Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of another person. When you help others grow to become the best people that they can be, you are being loving - and as a result, you grow.
Marcus Buckingham Thinks Your Boss Has An Attitude Problem by Polly LaBarre ♥
Forget everything you think you know about being a leader and learn how to really build a meaningful work culture. Your first job is to help every person generate compelling answers to 12 simple questions about the day-to-day realities of his or her job. These are the factors that determine whether people are engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged at work.
Revenge of the Right Brain by Daniel H. Pink ♥
In our current "Information Age" our left brains have made us rich and given us a standard of living shaped by abundance. But the ironic result is that this prosperity places a premium on less rational sensibilities -- like beauty, design, emotion, and spirituality. Liberated by abundance and prosperity but not fulfilled by it, more and more people are searching for meaning.
The Retention Challenge from the Ken Blanchard Companies
Good people make an organization survive and thrive and companies are increasingly realizing the crucial importance of retaining key talent. Learn about ten retention-building habits that managers or leaders should adopt.
The Role of Positivity and Connectivity in the Performance of Business Teams by Marcial Losada and Emily Heaphy ♥
Positivity in high performing teams studied created expansive emotional space that revealed a variety of possible actions whereas negativity in low performing teams created restricted emotional space that closed possibilities for action.
Who Has the Next Big Idea? by Daniel H. Pink
When you ask people to make changes - large, frightening changes - you need to enlist not just their minds but also their hearts. "You're not going to get passion in your organization by talking about shareholder value. You have to give people a sense of transcendent purpose."