Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

226 LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
• Learning from bosses, both “best bosses” and Dementors,
can help in identifying the characteristics to emulate or
avoid.
• Hardships can teach about limits, mistakes, resilience, and
courage. Integrating these learning experiences can let your
direct reports see themselves in a new light. Also, it can cast
a new perspective on life matters.
• Traditional training classes are a means to self-development.
They can give participants tips, strategies, shortcuts, and a
comparison of how they stack up against others in the class. 11
QUESTIONS AND ACTION APPLICATIONS
• Decide how often you want to have one-on-ones with your
direct reports.
• Prepare the fi rst meeting agenda from the previous list.
• See what agenda items your direct reports want and ask how
you can best use the time.
• Use the time to truly explore thinking and learning on many
of the topics above.
• Discuss and evaluate the meeting together. How was this
meeting, what worked well, and what could be better?
• Re-establish the frequency required for the meetings to
remain beneficial.
4. SOARING WITH STRENGTHS
When working with your direct reports, scan for their strengths,
help them stretch them, and teach them to apply them to other
areas as well. In their book Soar with Your Strengths, Clifton and
Nelson identified five characteristics of strengths:
LISTEN FOR YEARNINGS: This is a pull or an attaction toward
something. It may come from watching someone else and saying,