EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine August 2020 | Page 37

Remember the last time you overate, or skipped a workout, or
had more to drink than you had planned? That was your elephant
taking you for a ride.
What can we do about our elephants leading us astray?
Emotional Intelligence provides the tools and skills we need to
manage this powerful part of our brain that drives our behavior and
our thinking whether we are conscious of it or not.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
According to Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence,
Why It Can Matter More than IQ, emotional intelligence is often
described as having four main components:
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-management
3. Social awareness
4. Relationship management
Self-awareness is your ability to perceive your own emotions in
the moment and understand your tendencies across situations. Selfmanagement
is your ability to use your awareness of your emotions
to stay flexible and direct your behavior positively.
Social awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on
emotions in other people and understand what is really going on
with them. Relationship management requires competence in the
previous three as it is the ability to use your awareness of your own
emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully.
GROWTH
How do we develop these skills? The first step is emotional
literacy.
Only last year, I was unable to name 90 percent of my emotions
as I was experiencing them. In fact, only 36 percent of people tested
can accurately identify and name their emotions as they occur.
The problem is not an inadequate vocabulary. Most people have
simply never been mindfully aware of their emotional states. Think
about it this way: we have all driven somewhere and upon arriving,
could not remember how we got there.
During such a trip, our brain processed the roadway and traffic
conditions on a primitive level but missed so much of reality
that we were liable to drive past our destination and make other
mistakes. We were literally on autopilot.
WHO’S DRIVING?
Most of us live our lives on emotional autopilot, processing
the conditions on a primitive level, but never bringing our full
THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP
Economic development is a team sport and Team Volusia
Economic Development Corporation has a great team,
including these community leaders. We thank them for
their commitment and we are proud to recognize them
as Partner-level investors.
Frank Bruno, Bruno & Dinneen / Relocation Authority
Pete von Lersner, B. Braun Medical
Joe Forte, City of Holly Hill
Elizabeth Godwin, Duke Energy
Elisha Gonzalez, Fairwinds Credit Union
Jack Holcomb, New Smyrna Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
Melissa DeVriese, Security First Insurance
Roger Strcula, Upham, Inc.
INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT
TEAMVOLUSIAEDC.COM
386.265.6332