SISTER WISDOM

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Coaching, team development, and personal growth are a big part of business now. I’m not sure I buy into it: seems like a corporate extension of what is often a self-help racket. Can coaching and leadership development really produce increased productivity, magically cooperative team-players, and employees so motivated they beg you for extra projects?

Maybe. Maybe not. As with most broad-sweep solutions to common problems, what you put in is exactly what you get out. A corporation can’t force you to develop yourself any more than you Mom or Dad could. It’s up to you. That said, choosing to exercise discipline, smooth out your rough places, and gain skills is beneficial whether you work in a corporate office or a drive-thru window or from a laptop at your kitchen table.

The coaching concept of business intelligence can involve any or all of four areas: physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

A brief definition of each:

• Physical Intelligence: being aware of your body’s needs, responding before you crash and burn from too much stress, too little sleep, sickness, fatigue, or poor diet; providing your body with the energy, rest, and fuel it needs to complete the work you give it; being sensitive to the cues your body gives you.
• Emotional Intelligence: being aware of your own emotions, being able to manage them even in stressful situations, producing sufficient inner motivation to keep you moving, noticing the emotional responses of people around you and handling them positively.
• Social Intelligence: an extension of emotional intelligence, really; being able to gauge the group atmosphere, interaction between team members, potential problems and points of strength; exercising leadership in groups to move people toward positive, productive interaction and decision making.
• Spiritual Intelligence: the newest development in business intelligence potential; being able to see and/or seek a deeper purpose in work, business, and company mission; working from a motivation that is more universal and lasting than profit; being aware of how to make your work correspond with your greater purposes and goals in life.

Now that we know what our four possible areas of intelligence are, let’s look at some ideas for enhancing them.
Most of us can easily identify which particular “intelligence” areas we are weak in. I know my social intelligence isn’t that great, though my emotional intelligence is keen. I can easily sense the emotions of others, but when it comes to providing group leadership and moving an emotional atmosphere toward something positive, I draw a blank.

My husband, on the other hand, has a natural social intelligence. He seems to interact and move through groups with an instinct both graceful and effective. We all have natural strengths and weaknesses, so once you identify yours you can more efficiently smooth things out. Building skills is smart for business or personal success.

Read on for 80 Ideas to Enhance Your Intelligence.

Ideas to Enhance Your Physical Intelligence

1. Stretch every morning for ten to fifteen minutes, and again at some point during the day (lunch break, afternoon coffee break) for five minutes.
2. Once every hour or so, push your chair back from your desk, lean your head back, close your eyes, and just take a few deep breaths. If you notice that you are feeling very tense, get up and take a five minute break.
3. Get a Pilates workout dvd and use it at home or join a Pilates class at your gym. Even weekends only is great.
4. When you walk, check your posture. Straighten your back and release your shoulders. Tighten your abdominal muscles.
5. Climb the stairs instead of using the elevator.
6. Get an anatomy book (one with good illustrations) and spend five to ten minutes per day reading about part of your body.
7. Do puzzles over your lunch hour to give your brain some stretching time, too.
8. Keep a food journal for a week or so.
9. Create some clear space in your work area. If your office is cluttered and your desk is covered, you are creating unnecessary anxiety and tense muscles. Clear things out a bit. Keep your desk surface neat, and only keep papers out while in use.
10. Plan healthy meals for a week. See how much better you feel at the end of that week.
11. Get up at the same time every morning for a week. Then get up ten minutes earlier the next week.
12. Keep an exercise journal for a week or so.
13. Try a new sport, something you’re totally unfamiliar with that will force you to use your muscles in new ways.
14. Subscribe to a fitness/health magazine and read the issues as they come. Try to implement an idea or suggestion from each issue into your routine.
15. Schedule a session with a personal trainer at your gym.
16. Get a full-body massage.
17. Notice how tired or energetic you are at the end of the work day before you make evening plans. If you’re feeling peppy and excited, go out, have fun, spend time with friends. If you’re tired already, give yourself a break. Go home, eat a healthy meal, read a relaxing book for a while, and go to bed early.
18. Buy and wear comfortable working shoes.
19. Pay attention to the way you sit and use a computer and phone. Are you aggravating or stressing muscles by your posture? Shift your body a little until you hit a comfortable position.
20. Consider your clothing. Are you comfortable? Is your waistband tight? Is the material scratchy or warm? Try to build a wardrobe that is both comfortable, functional, and flattering. This takes time, but the sooner you start the sooner you will appreciate the benefits.

Ideas to Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence

1. Write out a definition of emotions and give examples of three strong positive emotions and three strong negative emotions.
2. Read a basic overview of personality types.
3. Notice your tone of voice next time you’re having a conversation that could escalate into conflict. Consciously force yourself to speak in a quiet, calm, and kind tone of voice, no matter what you are saying.
4. What is your personality type? If you don’t know, find out.
5. Write a paragraph describing the most exciting, thrilling, and/or fulfilling day of your life thus far.
6. Write a paragraph describing the most depressing, discouraging, and/or unproductive day of your life thus far.
7. Smile at strangers.
8. Start noticing body language. Arms folded? Leaning forward? How do different people stand, sit, and gesture? Look for the signals that tell you what they’re feeling.
9. Start noticing your own moods. Are you in a good mood or a bad mood most of the time? Describe a good mood and a bad mood for yourself (a brief statement for each will do).
10. Find someone who knows you well and ask him or her what your moods are like. Do the answers correspond with your answers from #9?
11. What triggers your anger? Do you know? Quickly list five things that make you mad.
12. How do you respond when you are mad? Quickly list a typical response to the five things from #11.
13. Now consider how your typical mad response from #12 would affect the people near you or involved in the situation. Quickly list what you think someone else’s response might be to your five typical mad responses from #12.
14. List three people you know well. Think about how they act, speak, and move when 1) happy and relaxed, 2) angry or frustrated, and 3) stressed and under pressure.
15. What is the purpose of emotions? Answer that question for yourself. Do a little reading and research if you want, but come up with your own answer.
16. Listen to a conversation between teenage girls. Really listen.
17. Listen to a conversation between businessmen. Really listen.
18. What emotional differences do you notice between the conversations from #16 and #17?
19. Notice the expression on the faces of strangers.
20. Smile, broadly, for no apparent reason, every hour on the hour.

More ideas…

Ideas to Enhance Your Social Intelligence

1. If you’re not a naturally outgoing person, find and memorize a few greeting and exiting lines. Use them. People like repetition.
2. What’s your typical response to conflict? Ask yourself, then ask someone who knows you well. Compare answers.
3. How can you tell when people are stressed out, anxious, tense, and uncomfortable? List at least five physical cues that you can look for.
4. How can you tell when people are angry, irritated, annoyed, or about to lose it? List at least five physical cues that you can look for. Not everybody yells, you know.
5. What physical cues do you display when you get anxious or angry? List at least three for each scenario.
6. Find and memorize five humorous one-liners. Funny helps mad go away. They’re not foolproof, of course, but it’s better to have something handy than draw a blank when you’re desperate.
7. Who was/is the mediator in your family? How did/does that person mediate conflicts?
8. Who is the most popular person you know (besides yourself!)? Next time you are around that person, notice at least three particular gestures, expressions, or movements.
9. Start asking people something besides the standard “How are you?” or “What’s up?”. Try for something that requires more than a Yes/No, Fine/Nothing answer. Then listen.
10. Respect personal space. Don’t get right in someone’s face, don’t stand extremely close, and don’t talk louder than is necessary to be heard.
11. Read a book about how to resolve conflicts.
12. Keep at least a minimal knowledge of current events and pop culture so you can have a conversation with anyone.
13. Walk with confidence.
14. Read a book about mingling.
15. Smile when you talk to people.
16. Send clear signals about what you are doing when entering a group. If you want to shake hands, put your hand right out there. Don’t be wishy washy. People will respond if they know where you’re going.
17. If a topic is touchy, pull out a deflection line: “Perhaps we could continue this conversation tomorrow, in my office,” or “Would you be willing to email me your thoughts on this so I can be sure I understand them?” Then change the subject.
18. Don’t assume people agree with you on religion, politics, and morality. In fact, assume that they don’t agree, and assume that they can teach you something. Discuss the big issues with an attitude of trying to solve a problem together.
19. Use names, first names when appropriate.
20. Close each conversation gracefully. Memorize a few closers if needed. Extend thanks. Say nice to meet you, or see you, or whatever fits. Smile, and walk away.

Ideas to Increase Your Spiritual Intelligence

1. Sketch or describe your idea of the perfect life.
2. What is altruism? Write out your own definition.
3. Read a short passage from the Psalms each day.
4. Read a chapter from the book of Proverbs each day. (The numbers correspond to the date.)
5. Find a few inspiration quotations and memorize them.
6. Volunteer at a local charity or non-profit organization.
7. Give away ten percent of your paycheck to your church, a charity, or an individual in need.
8. Write a mission statement for your life.
9. Write a quick list of the five greatest problems in the world. Now write a list of what you can do to help solve those problems.
10. Spend five minutes when you first wake up (or while you’re in the shower, or having your first cup of coffee) to think about your larger goal for the day, the week, the year.
11. Offer to help your co-workers when you see them struggling with a project or problem.
12. At least one day per week should be “off-work” day. Don’t bring it home, don’t run to the office, don’t take the phone calls, don’t check your work email. Your mind needs time to reflect and renew.
13. Read an allegorical book.
14. Read some poetry by Rabindranath Tagore.
15. Answer this question: if you didn’t need money, how would you spend your life?
16. Spend some time baselining.
17. Donate some time to help a friend finish a project.
18. Once a month, take an hour or so to review your life goals and the direction you are heading.
19. Talk with your spouse about his/her goals, dreams, and life mission.
20. Write a sentence or two describing how your current work fulfills your mission at this point in your life.