Coaching

Is the Intellection Talent one of Your Top Talents or Strengths?

Intellection

The Clifton StrengthsFinder suggests that people who have the Intellection talent are people who are energized by mental activity. 

Intellection gifted people love to think.  They appreciate all kinds of mental activity. They are problem solvers who are capable of developing significant ideas and solutions. Most people who possess high Intellection talent love to read and they can’t get enough of analyzing things.

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to turn your unique set of strengths into leverage that comes out in your personal power!

Jeff Snyder Strengths Coaching

 

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Is the Responsibility talent high on your list of talents / strengths?

Responsibility

The Clifton StrengthsFinder suggests that people who have the Responsibility talent high on their list of talents take ownership for what they say they will do. 

People with high Responsibility talent hold values such as honesty and loyalty highly. These people tend to connect their words and their actions. They keep promises and honor commitments. They are people you can count on. Responsibility people are frequently trust builders.

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to leverage your unique set of talents into strengths that show up in your personal performance.

Career Coaching from Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Is the Communication Talent One of Your Top Talents?

Communication

The Clifton StrengthsFinder suggests that people who have the Communication talent have exceptionally strong abilities to write, present, describe and explain.  They can turn thoughts and actions into stories.

They have the ability to create word pictures.  People who are gifted with the Communication talent generally have no trouble putting their thoughts into words that captivate others.

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to leverage your unique set of talents into strengths that show up in your personal performance.

Career Coaching from Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Is the Harmony Talent One of Your Top Talents?

Harmony

The Clifton StrengthsFinder suggests that people who have Harmony talent have the ability to find consensus.    They do not appreciate conflict.  Rather, they will actively look for agreement. 

People with the Harmony talent promote collaboration.  They value getting along with others so things can get done.  Frequently, people with the Harmony talent are characterized by being composed, collected and calm. 

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to leverage your unique set of talents into strengths that show up in your personal performance.

Career Coaching from Jeff Snyder Coaching

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How Do Strengths and Emotional Intelligence Fit Together?

Emotional Intelligence Coach

STRENGTHS COACHING

For many of my career coaching clients, the process we follow is that of strengths coaching followed by emotional intelligence coaching.  The decision to coach around these two topics wasn’t a random choice. It was my Strategic strength at work.

The decision to blend strengths coaching with emotional intelligence coaching came about after someone came along and introduced me to my own unique strengths.  It was an eye-opening experience. 

Once my strengths coach introduced me to the idea that I was uniquely built and he helped me to understand how I was built and why my unique wiring mattered, all kinds of light bulbs lit up in my mind.

Reaching a point where I understood my unique personal strengths was a life-changing experience. I decided that adding strengths coaching to my coaching practice. However, I felt like something was still missing.  I continued on my journey to find best-in-class tools to add to my coaching practice and discovered that something I had seen for many years had been labeled by someone else.

Once I connected the dots and realized that what was on my mind for a long time was emotional intelligence, I found a way to become educated, trained and certified in the topic of emotional intelligence. Once again, it was my Strategic strength at work again.

VALIDATION of my THEORIES

There is no shortage of articles that have been written about Emotional Intelligence. Here are a few you might want to read.

In this Inc. article, one of the 10 Qualities reads like this:

“6. They know their strengths and weaknesses.

Emotionally intelligent people know what they're good at and what they're not so great at. They've not just accepted their strengths and weaknesses; they also know how to leverage their strengths and weaknesses by working with the right people in the right situation.”

UNDERSTANDING, EMBRACING and LEVERAGING STRENGTHS

In my strengths coaching practice, I help my clients understand their unique personal strengths.  Once they understand what they have to work with and they choose to embrace their uniqueness, I’m then in a position to show my clients how to leverage their strengths to create their best personal performance.

WEAKNESSES

On the other side of an individual’s strengths are an individual’s weaknesses.  I don’t believe in trying to turn weaknesses into strengths but I do believe in the importance of knowing one’s weaknesses so that a strategy can be built around weaknesses to keep them from getting in the way of fine-tuning one’s strengths.

Another one of the 10 Qualities mentioned in the Inc. article reads like this: 

5. They're empathetic.

Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, told The Huffington Post that empathy is one of the five components of emotional intelligence. In fact, being able to relate to others, show compassion, and take the time to help someone are all crucial components of EI. Additionally, being empathic makes people with EI curious about other people and leads them to ask lots of questions whenever they meet someone new.

Empathy is one of the 34 traits measured by the StregnthsFinder assessment I use for strengths coaching.

Empathy is also one of 15 emotional intelligence skills that are measured in the assessment I use to determine a person’s baseline emotional intelligence before we start the emotional intelligence coaching process. 

While the StrengthsFinder assessment and the EQi-2.0 Assessment are owned by two different companies, I determined that they strategically fit together.  More importantly, my clients who have worked with me on both strengths coaching and emotional intelligence coaching appreciate the results they have personally achieved through the coaching process where these two tools were used to record baseline results.

CONCLUSION

The decision I made to blend strengths coaching with emotional intelligence coaching has benefited my clients in amazing ways.  Here are a few of my client's thoughts on the subject:

"I wish I had known about Jeff and Strengths base Coaching before I put myself in a situation that isn't ideal."
"It wasn't until I started Emotional Intelligence Coaching with you that I started seeing the world through other people's eyes.  That's a gift you've given me".
"You sir are a magician at assisting me in accessing and having confidence in my abilities based on my natural strengths."
"I am so thankful I was introduced to Jeff's EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment and his amazing coaching skills.  I only wish it was years earlier."
"Jeff, I just wanted to thank you for today's session.  I continue to get more "Ah-Ha" moments as we continue to process the StrengthsFinder exercise."

 

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

 

 

 

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The "Smartest Person in the Room Syndrome"

Perhaps you’ve encountered this person?

The smartest person in the room tends to dominate meetings. They don’t let others add a word to their one-sided conversations. They have a consistent need to let others know how intelligent they are. More often than not, they truly are the person in the room who was gifted with the highest IQ.

When it comes to IQ (cognitive skills), the smartest person in the room frequently possesses more intellectual, analytical, logical and rational abilities than everyone else. They are drawn to highly analytical careers such as engineering, information technology or cyber security. These are careers where exceptionally high IQ serves one well.

It is this exceptionally high IQ that enables the smartest person in the room to excel to a certain level. At some point though, the IQ that got the smartest person in the room to where they are will no longer propel them forward to the next level of career success.

Research suggests that IQ can be responsible for as much as +-20% of one’s career success but more often than not, IQ is responsible for as little as 6% of career success.

Is the smartest person in the room doomed to hit a glass ceiling in their career? Often times the answer is yes and the reason is behavior. The smartest person in the room frequently leaves a trail of relationship carnage behind them. They may not wake up every morning thinking about whom they can step on that day, but throughout the day, if they behave in ways that are natural to them, they will step on other people.

What are some of the characteristics of the smartest person in the room?

  • Talk more than they listen.
  • Fail to consider other’s points of view.
  • Have a constant need to be right and to win.
  • Share opinions even when the topic they have an opinion on is not their expertise.
  • Frequently not teachable because their regard for themselves is inflated.
  • Fails to understand how they come across to others.
  • Low in empathy.

Is there a cure for “The Smartest Person in the Room Syndrome”?

There absolutely is a cure if the smartest person in the room can humble themselves to not just accept coaching, but they need to humble themselves to actively participate in and work on their coaching. It’s not a matter of turning weaknesses into strengths. Addressing behavioral change is more about creating strategies to manage behaviors that could impact others in an adverse way.

IQ is generally thought of as being stagnant. In other words, you're as smart today as you're ever going to be. Emotional Intelligence is generally thought to be flexible in that the skills that make up Emotional Intelligence can be adjusted through coaching.

The "Smartest Person In the Room"...with a Behavioral Strategy

A retired military 2 Star General told me a story while we shared a meal. He asked me to take a look at a person I could see over his shoulder at the next table. He asked me if I wanted to know how that person became a 4 Star General when my meal companion had only reached 2 Stars. Not that becoming a 2 Star General is an easy task but my companion really wanted me to understand how his friend and colleague reached the 4 Star level of success.

Of course I wanted to know. The 2 Star General explained to me that he and the 4 Star General graduated from the same class in the military academy they both attended. They both started out with the same credentials to begin their military careers. The game-changer for the 4 Star General was his ability to be the smartest person in the room more often than not throughout his career but he learned to suppress his need to let everyone know that he was so smart.

The 2 Star General told me that the 4 Star General, whom he admired as both a friend and career colleague, excelled in everything he did because he was intellectually gifted but he learned quickly that his career would take off if he learned how to treat people with respect.

Some of the characteristics that enabled the 4 Star General to excel include:

  • Listened more than he talked.
  • Let other people win whenever possible.
  • Considered other people’s points of view.
  • Shared opinions when he was asked for his opinions and not just because he possessed an answer.
  • Was teachable, trainable and receptive to being coached.
  • Exhibited humility.
  • Developed empathy for others.

The 4 Star General developed and mastered Emotional Intelligence. Think about it. The 4 Star General had to have a high IQ in order to get into a military academy. He had to have an exceptionally high IQ in order to graduate at or near the top of his academy class.

The 2 Star General was confident that it was the 4 Star General’s ability to develop trust with those around him, his ability to humble himself and his ability to step into others’ shoes to consider their needs and their points of view that caused his career to excel.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

 

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I Read the Book...I'm an Expert Now!

Reading
“Many people have an incomplete sense of how to learn from books.  They make the mistake of reading a book and deciding they know the information in it, but put the book down before they have actually mastered the information – as it applies to their life – and poof!  The knowledge they gained – and the benefit they could have derived – from reading the book is gone.  It didn’t have anywhere to stick, and so the potential wisdom fades away.”  Angela E. Lauria

This paragraph comes from a book I’m reading called “The Difference”.  It’s a book that outlines how to go about writing a book.  This particular paragraph caught my attention because I’ve heard people tell me many times that they’ve read books on Strengths or they’ve read books on Emotional Intelligence. 

These are the people who don’t usually see any value in strengths coaching or emotional intelligence coaching because they have already learned everything there is to learn about strengths and emotional intelligence. 

The other reason that the quoted paragraph caught my attention was a personal experience I had. In the 1995 timeframe, just after I started my business at the age of 27, I read a book called “The E Myth”.  Since I was young and I hadn’t had time to make many entrepreneurial mistakes yet, the book didn’t mean much to me.

Twenty years later in 2015, I picked up “The E Myth” again.  This time, I had 20 years of experience with both mistakes and successes.  This time around, I highlighted half of the book because it made sense to me.  If you have read a book on Strengths or Emotional Intelligence, great job for taking the first step.  You know what both topics are about. 

I encourage you to take the next step to gain an understanding of how your unique personal strengths impact your life and how your personal emotional intelligence impacts your life and the lives of those around you.  It is after this second step that you might be in a position to learn to leverage your unique personal strengths and your unique emotional intelligence.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Is the Significance Strength One of Your Top Strengths?

Significance

 

The Clifton StrengthsFinder suggests that people who have the Significance strength want to be very important in other’s eyes.

Significance is an influencing theme. For people who have Significance as a strength, they have a deep desire to leave a legacy.  When they understand how to leverage their strength the right way, the strength of Significance can give someone the ability to lead others.

A person who has the Significance theme high on their list can sometimes get stuck in a mindset that says “Look at me!”  A person who has this theme high on their list and has learned to turn Significance into a positive strength can use this strength to lead others.

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to turn your unique set of strengths into leverage that comes out in your personal power!

Jeff Snyder Strengths Coaching

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IQ Gets You Started…Strong EQ Takes You Further

Emotional Intelligence

 

Cognitive Intelligence

IQ is Cognitive Intelligence. Cognitive Intelligence involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience.

Emotional Intelligence

EQ or Emotional Quotient (Emotional Intelligence) is a set of emotional and social skills that collectively establish how we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges and how we use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way.

The Professor

A conversation I shared a while back with one of the smartest people I know shed light on a topic I set out to master a few years ago.  I have a friend who has a PhD in Math.  He was once a college math professor.  He has worked in academic, government and private industry roles.

We got into a conversation one day where I learned about the early part of my friend’s career.  As a young college math professor, he learned the hard way that his high IQ wasn’t enough to make him successful. 

My friend told me that he wished I’d come along to teach him about the value of people and relationships long ago.  He learned the hard way that strong emotional intelligence is a requirement and not an option.

This amazingly smart former professor encouraged me to stick with my mission of wanting to help gifted, high IQ technology professionals to get to the next level in their careers by addressing their people skills, social skills, relationship building skills and for some, their leadership skills.

In my Inbox yesterday was an email from the Harvard Business Review.  The subject line read like this:

“Unleash your emotional intelligence for a leadership advantage”

HBR was offering a collection of books focused on Emotional Intelligence.  This is the real deal folks. There is nothing in my portfolio of work that is more important than the Emotional Intelligence Coaching work I’m fortunate to do with people who are ready to improve.

 

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

 

 

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Simply Knowing one’s Strengths Isn’t Enough

Strengths Coaching

During one of my public speaking opportunities, I asked my audience for a show of hands. I was curious to know how many in the audience had taken a Clifton StrengthsFinder.  My guess is that there were 60 or so people in the audience.

To my surprise, approximately 45 hands went up.  I asked a follow-up question.  I asked how many people who had their hands up had done anything with their StrengthsFinder report.  I was curious to know if anybody had gone through Strengths Coaching with a Strengths Coach or if they had done additional research on their own.

Out of the 45 hands that were up, only 5 hands continued to stay up.  That day, I learned that out of the now 13,000,000 people around the globe who have taken a Clifton StrengthsFinder, only a small percentage have gone beyond taking the assessment.

I took a Clifton StrengthsFinder approximately 5 years ago.  The report came back to me. I read the report.  I put the report into a folder and filed it away just like most other people do. 

It wasn’t until someone came long a few years ago and coached me to understand my strengths, to understand how my strengths operate and how my strengths behave when they run up against someone else’s strengths, that the light bulbs began to turn on in my mind.

All of a sudden, I started to understand why I had always operated the way I did. I started to understand how other people I knew operated the way they did.  It was at the point where I accepted and embraced my strengths that my Strengths Coach began to show me how to leverage my strengths.

Then the light bulbs really started lighting up!

I learned that the event of taking a Clifton StrengthsFinder was just the beginning.  It is when I went through a process to learn to embrace and leverage my unique strengths that my world started to change.

Jeff Snyder Coaching, Strengths Coaching, 719.686.881

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Is the Input Strength one of Your Top Strengths?

Input

 

In the world of the Clifton StrengthsFinder from Gallup, there is a strength called Input. People who have this particular strength love to collect and archive information.

They are highly inquisitive people who always want to know more.  They can never know enough!  This type of person enjoys being a resource for others.  They enjoy helping others.  They are often seen as people who know something about a lot of things.

If they don’t immediately know the answer, chances are good that they saved a resource such as a blog post or an article that they can turn to in their organized collection to get to the answer.

For this person to reach their full potential with the Input strength, it would be a good idea if they were to partner with someone who possesses the Discipline strength in order to keep the Input person focused.

You can find out how you’re uniquely wired and you can learn how to turn your unique set of strengths into leverage that comes out in your personal power!

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

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Reality Testing...a Really Important Emotional Intelligence Skill

Emotional Intelligence

Reality Testing

Reality Testing is one of the skills measured by the EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment.

Reality Testing is part of the Decision Making domain of emotional intelligence skills.  It is defined like this:

Reality Testing is the capacity to remain objective by seeing things as they really are.  This capacity involves recognizing when emotions or personal bias can cause one to be less objective.

This particular skill is one of the most important skills out of the 15 emotional intelligence skills measured by the EQi-2.0.  If a person’s Reality Testing is not balanced, the way they see themselves and the way they see the world around them will be out of balance.

Unbalanced Reality Testing

Let’s say you have a boss who thinks they are an outstanding communicator.  From your point of view, when your boss speaks to you, he / she is never clear with regards to their spoken expectations. 

You constantly find yourself wondering what your boss really expects from you because you’re never clear about what your boss just said.

Based on how confident your boss is about how they think they communicate, they set expectations in their mind for your performance that you never quite live up to.   

Can you see where disconnect is occurring in this example?

This is what an unbalanced Reality Testing score looks like on the EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment

Reality Testing

This is what a balanced Reality Testing score looks like on the EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment

Reality Testing

What we're looking for in the scores you see above is balance.  The top example is completely out of balance whereas the bottom example is much closer to being in balance.

If you were a boss who had healthy Reality Testing abilities or if you reported to a boss who had healthy Reality Testing abilities, the communication disconnect described in the above example would likely not occur.

Good News!

Unlike IQ (cognitive intelligence) that remains static throughout adulthood,  EQ or Emotional Intelligence can be measured, coached and improved. Think of EQ as being flexible.

If you’d like to see the entire chart of Emotional Intelligence skills that are measured by the EQi-2.0, the world’s most widely used assessment to measure Emotional Intelligence, I’ll take you to it on Jeff Snyder Coaching.

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

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