Coaching Blog
The Coaching Group Of Switzerland

An article by Tony Schwartz

The last several months have been, in many ways, the richest, most exciting and most creative period of my life. Still, as I prepare to take off most of the month of August, I’m feeling edgy, worn out and a bit overwhelmed.

I’m sputtering to the finish line, running near empty.

“How often should you vacation?” I was asked after a talk I gave this week. It dawned on me that I’d let my own balance tip. My to do list had runneth over. I have not taken off more than two full days in a row for six months.

The consequence is that I feel not just tired, but less able to think clearly and creatively, more at the mercy of my emotions.

By Glenn Leibowitz
The ubiquity of smartphones and their suffocating grasp on people's attention makes me long for the days when they didn't yet exist.

There was a time, not too long ago in fact, when people were more inclined to make eye contact with each other and engage in a thoughtful, two-way conversation. While I'm not quite declaring the end of this fundamental social function, I am lamenting its slow demise. Having a good conversation is rapidly becoming a lost art.

Fortunately, though, there are some really gifted conversationalists who continue to bear the torch and light the way for the rest of us, like Teri Gross, the long-time host and co-executive producer of NPR's "Fresh Air." Gross has interviewed thousands of people over the course of her four-decade career.
In a recent article in The New York Times, Gross offers advice on a question that is relevant to all of us: How do you have a good conversation? Here are just four of the several useful tips she shares:

By Evy Poumpouras
Think about the differences in these two sentences:
Look what I became. 
Look what became of me.

Despite the small word difference, what do these sentences say about the speaker’s mental attitude? Although they’re nearly identical statements, one is active and the other is passive. In the first sentence, the speaker has taken ownership over their life and became something by doing something. She owns the results, regardless of what those results are. Her approach and self-commitment have made her powerful, and that power came from within—hence a powerful mental attitude.

By Marcel Schwantes
In 2016, the World Economic Forum released its fascinating Future of Jobs Report, where they asked chief human resources officers from global companies what they saw as the top 10 job skills required for workers to thrive by 2020.

One skill projected for success in 2020 that didn’t even crack the top 10 list in 2015 was — you guessed it — emotional intelligence.

According to many experts in the field, emotional intelligence has become an important predictor of job success for nearly two decades, even surpassing technical ability.

In one noteworthy CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,600 U.S. hiring managers and human resources professionals, it was found that “fifty-nine percent of employers would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low [emotional intelligence].”

In fact, 75 percent of survey respondents said they’re more likely to promote someone with high emotional intelligence over someone with high IQ.
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Companies are placing a high value on workers with emotional intelligence for several reasons. In my own studies and observations over the years as a leadership coach, here are six that really stand out....