Emotional woodpeckers!!

Thuck, thuck, ..........thuck,........thuck, thuck. That was the sound that grabbed my attention and made me smile this morning.

So maybe I have got your attention :) I have two posts in mind and thought I would try and combine them in an interesting way.

The first does include a woodpecker. As I walked to the station in the morning, I cut through a cul-de-sac and past a large oak tree. It is the remnant of an old pub garden that has been developed, surrounding the tree with houses and fences.

Ironically the pub had been called The Kingfisher (because it was beside a man-made river that until not long go supplied fresh water to north London.

The sound however was distinctive and I immediately looked, without much hope, for the culprit. Happily I quickly spotted a green woodpecker in classic pose, gripping the truck high up and beating his morning tattoo. I am not sure why I said "he", but that is what it felt like.

Of course the lack of leaves made it easier to spot, but somehow finding a bird of the woodlands making itself at home in my neighbourhood seemed to be a good sign. I quite often see a large fox wandering the streets as I walk home, but this seemed to be in. Different league.

Now, where did the emotional element rise? Well, refers of this blog will know that I enjoy exploring the implications of coincidence and convergence. In this instance the convergence is two streams of thought coming together.

The first is round emotional intelligence (EI) or emotional quotient (EQ). This is the ability of an person to know themselves and undertakes, relate to and empathise with others and is cognised increasingly as an important contributor to professional success.

I am a member of an network called IQEQ which looks at matters around the importance and development of emotional intelligence in high IQ environments - they are not always found together! The current topic is "Engagement in Uncertainty".

The second thread was about a website and newsletter called mindtools.com . I do not recall where or when I connected with this site, but I enjoy the newsletters I receive and more than that I have a series of podcasts that either view books or interview experts that I have been enjoying. I am sure I did not pay for the podcasts, but it seems that maybe you have to be payment member to get access now. That is a shame, but the other materials are still worth accessing.

The newsletter is free and I received my latest one today. In it was an article about "authentic leadership" with an emphasis on integrity. The other piece was on emotional intelligence - now maybe you see the pattern emerging?

I won't plagiarise the work, but rather include the link here
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_59.htm#np

I hope you will find it interesting and I would commend looking at the mind tools site and signing up for their newsletter. Whether you want to pay for deeper access is a personal decision, but there is plenty for free and I will keep looking for free access to the podcasts.




So an there we have the "emotional woodpecker" post.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad