Over 100 years ago, a guy called Hermann Ebbinghaus formulated the learning curve. The learning curve is the is how long your retain information or the relationship between memory and time. Simply put if you retain all the information on day one. Your memory is at 100 percent on day one, then you have a 50-80 percent loss on day two which continues until you have only 2-3 percent of that memory left at the end of thirty days.
Now, this is sped up with our shorter attention spans and increased overload of information. So 100 years later our learning sometimes is reduced to 140 characters!
So what can we do to improving learning outcomes and retaining critical information. This why experiential learning is the key to the overload of information.
What is Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is the process of learning by doing.
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 1984) defines experiential learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience.”
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory presents a cycle of four elements
Repetitive Learning or learning by rote has long been replaced by ‘Learning by Doing.’ Experiential Learning uses critical thinking, or problem solving and decision making. By learning this way it has been established it accelerates learning.
Accelerated learning our lessons in shorter sessions more suited to how we now learn.
2. Provides a Safe Learning Environment
Simulations are important. Simulations provide challenges, allow mistakes to happen during the course of learning. Creating a safe environment.
Make mistakes in a simulated environment and learn in an arena rather than in the workplace.
3. Bridges the Gap Between Theory and Practice
By moving beyond theory into “learning by doing,’. Our learning allows a first hand experience of how you react under pressure to put into practicing what has been taught. This piece in crucial in being able to retain concepts and ideas.
4. Produces Demonstrable Mindset Changes
There are very few learning methods that can have a dramatic impact on the participant’s mindset. Ours does, emotional intelligence workshops, is one of them. Management guru Henry Mintzberg pointed out long ago that, “Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it”.
5. Increases Engagement Levels
In the scenario of a Team Leadership Workshop there is a focus on collaboration and learning from each other and this learning environment it increases engagement. Given that in the arena, each person is immediately involved in the problem solving , the level of ownership of the outcome is high.
6. Delivers Exceptional Return on Investment (RoI)
Experiential learning is personal and effective in nature, influencing both feelings and emotions as well as enhancing knowledge and skills. It goes beyond classroom learning and ensures that there is high level of retention, thereby delivering exceptional RoI over a traditional learning program.
7. Provides Assessments
Assessing the effectiveness of the experience is a crucial element of any learning program. Most assessments are data driven and traditional tools use tests to measure effectiveness. When it comes to experiential learning programs, it is extremely difficult to gather data, which can be used for assessments. But others have said this it is still the best leadership training ever.
8. Enables Personalised Learning
Experiential learning is highly effective in meeting these requirements to enable personalised learning. Everyone gets to learn at their own pace.
Our leadership workshops are backed by research and experiential learning in practice, where personal reflections are put into practice. Get out of the classroom and into the arena for leadership learning.
When it comes to finding success, most people believe that the higher your IQ, the more success you’ll enjoy in life. However, this isn’t always the case. In the last decade, the topic of emotional intelligence has gained popularity and been shown to be a better predictor of success. Fortunately, unlike IQ, emotional intelligence, or EQ can be learned and developed.
Emotional intelligence is your ability to be aware of, control, and express your emotions and to effectively handle interpersonal relationships with empathy. There are two kinds of emotional intelligence: interpersonal and intrapersonal. Interpersonal emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, acknowledge, and regulate the emotions of others. Intrapersonal emotional intelligence is about your ability to understand, accept, and control your own feelings, motivations, and fear.
Having high emotional intelligence is not only necessary for success but plays an incredibly important role in your overall happiness in life. There are a variety of benefits that are associated with having a high level of emotional intelligence and improving your emotional intelligence can help you to navigate better the social complexities you face throughout both your personal and professional life. Here are some of the indispensable benefits that you can gain by having a high level of emotional intelligence.
Success in Your Career
Being successful in your career has a lot to do with effectively dealing with other people. In fact, recent studies showed that 75 percent of jobs are derailed for reasons that are related to emotional competencies. This includes your inability to handle interpersonal issues, an unsatisfactory team leadership during times of conflict and difficulty, and the failure to change or adapt to changing circumstances, among others. When you have a high level of emotional intelligence, you will find that you thrive in the following areas:
Success in your career
· Managing a team
· Leading a team
· Working in a team
· Selling or marketing
· Providing customer support
· Negotiating a deal
· Connecting with professionals
When companies are filled with high emotionally intelligent workers, not only does it contribute to the overall success of the company, but it also creates a better work environment, which helps the employees remain happy with their job. Whist your employees are happy, your customers are more likely to stay happy as well.
Able to Build Better Relationships
Building better relationships with emotional intelligence
One of the most common reasons why most relationships end up failing is because of low emotional intelligence. As Dale Carnegie once said, “When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” People that have a low level of emotional intelligence, often find it challenging to manage their emotions and understand others.
Building a relationship is a two-way street, which means that you need to work on raising your emotional intelligence, while also finding someone who also has high emotional intelligence. When two people with high emotional intelligence are compatible, the relationship tends to work out much better.
Improved Personal Development
Among all of the relationships that you have in your life, the one that you have with yourself is the best relationship. If you have a toxic relationship with yourself, you can’t hope to have a healthy relationship with others. Emotional intelligence helps you to understand and manage your emotions. The more that you can understand yourself, the more you can recognize the differences in others. This will help you to understand others better and meet them where they are.
So, before you can go on to help others, you have to start helping yourself. However, you need to remember that you can’t be selfish or self-absorbed, which will cause you to become indifferent to others. There is a delicate balance between putting yourself and your health first, and not making everything about you. Fortunately, improving your emotional intelligence can help to draw a line between the two.
More Confidence and Happiness
When you can effectively monitor unpleasant feelings, you can take more action to feel happy, confident, and calm. Too often, we depend on outside influences to bring us joy, confidence, and peace. While you always want to celebrate the positive events, if you continue to rely on them for your happiness, you’ll find yourself sad, depressed, angry, upset, and more in your default state.
Having high emotional intelligence means that you can switch from this default state because you are able to regulate your emotions effectively. Through mindfulness, and taking the right actions, you can ultimately become more focused, happy, confident, relaxed, and enthusiastic in your life.
The Components of Emotional Intelligence
Psychologist and best-selling author of the book: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman, has suggested that five components are critical to emotional intelligence. The more that you can manage each of these five components in your life, the higher level of emotional intelligence you can expect to have.
Component #1 – Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is your ability to recognize, as well as understand your emotions, skills, and motivations. Another important aspect of self-awareness is understanding how your emotions affect those around you. To achieve self-awareness, you need to learn how to monitor your emotional state and identify your feelings. Traits that prove a person is emotionally intelligent to include the ability to laugh at your mistakes, confidence, and the awareness of how others perceive you.
Component #2 – Self-Regulation
Being able to self-regulate, when it comes to emotional intelligence, is your ability to control your impulses, the ability to think before you speak or react, and the ability to express yourself appropriately. In other words, it’s the emotional maturity that allows you to take responsibility for your actions, as well as being able to adapt to change and respond to other’s emotions appropriately.
Component #3 – Motivation
Motivation is having an interest in learning and improving yourself. This component of emotional intelligence is about having the strength to keep going when encounter obstacles in your life and setting goals and sticking to them. An emotionally mature individual in this category has traits like having initiative and being able to commit to the completion of a task, as well as having the perseverance to continue on in the face of adversity.
Having empathy means that you understand other people’s emotions and reactions. You can only achieve empathy for others if you’ve achieved self-awareness. Before you can understand others, you have to be able to understand yourself and your emotions. Those who have emotional maturity in the category of empathy possess traits like being interested in other’s worries and concerns, being able to anticipate someone’s emotional response to an issue, and the understanding of societal norms and why people act the way they do.
Component #5 – Social Skills
Social skills are your ability to pick up on sarcasm, jokes, customer service, finding common ground with others, and the ability to maintain relationships. It is defined as someone who has excellent communication skills, good time management skills, the ability to resolve difficult situations or conflicts using persuasion, and the ability to be a leader.
How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
Like any other skill that you want to develop, improving your emotional intelligence will take both time and practice. To start with, you have to develop a growth mindset and believe that you can improve your emotional intelligence no matter where you’re starting. You also have to think that there is no limit to how much you can improve your EQ. Here are some of the best ways that you can improve your emotional intelligence.
There are a lot of theories out there on personality traits, but the “Big 5” personality traits have been wildly researched and talked about. The five traits include openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. When you can come to understand your personality traits, it can become much more comfortable to accept or change who you are, while becoming more understanding and accommodating to the behavior of others.
Define Your Values and Beliefs
Limiting beliefs
While we all have similar basic needs, we all want different things in life and hold different beliefs and values. The worst thing you can do is chase others desires or copy their beliefs and not staying true to your values. To overcome this and improve your emotional intelligence, you need to take the time to set your beliefs, values, and goals. Once you’ve chosen your values, you need to define each one in your own words with as much detail as possible. The clearer your definition, the higher the chances that you’ll stick with your values and direct your energy toward them.
Listen to Yourself
Whether you realize it or not, your body and mind are continually giving you signs, but it’s not easy to notice them when you’re living on autopilot. Many times, we experience what is known as Amygdala Hijack. The amygdala is an area in the brain that is responsible for processing emotions. When it is hijacked, your pre-frontal cortex gets shut off, and the amygdala region of the brain activates your fear, putting you into the fight-or-flight response. While this phenomenon helped us to survive in the past, it often gets us into trouble today. The best way to combat this is to practice mindfulness.
Visit the Past to Create the Future
Since your childhood, you’ve been exposed to millions of different concepts that set the foundation of your subconscious mind. Your past holds a lot of insight into why you do what you do. Looking back at your past can help you to understand the underlying reason for your values, desires, thought patterns, preferences, and emotional reactions. Start by asking questions and resetting your mind and exploring the possibilities of what you can let go and who you can ultimately become. When you can develop a better understanding of your past, you become free to create a better future and navigate the world with confidence.
Learn to Handle Emotions Appropriately
If you want to improve your emotional intelligence, you need to begin to understand a wide range of emotions and how to handle them. The benefits of building your emotional granularity are immense including being 30 percent more flexible when regulating your emotions, being less likely to explode in anger when someone hurts you and handling fear and anxiety in a better way, among others.
Learn to Listen to Others
Learning to listen to others
You have to approach everything with a beginner’s mind and treat every opportunity to look at things from a different perspective. The more perspectives that you can collect, the more you will start to realize how small your viewpoint really is. If you want to expand your perception and knowledge, you have to learn how to observe and listen. You can also work on getting honest feedback from others on how they perceive you. The insights that you receive about yourself will change your life.
Learn to Communicate Better
There are two types of communication, verbal and non-verbal. When it comes to verbal communication, learn how to listen to others rather than thinking about what you’re going to say next. You can also try to make people feel safe by showing kindness. To improve your verbal communication skills, you can’t be afraid to share yourself with others, and you have to explain things simply so that others will want to listen to you.
To improve your non-verbal communication skills, you will need to learn how to use eye-contact appropriately, uses gestures and expressions in your communication, and read people by paying attention to the body language and expressions of others.
Conclusion
You can’t expect for people, including yourself, to be intelligent all the time. We all make mistakes, and one of the humblest things that you can do as a person with high levels of emotional intelligence is to accept mistakes. When it comes to improving your emotional intelligence, you want to make sure that when you meet people who lack EQ, you can lead by example and hope for the best for them. None of us are born with high emotional intelligence, but rather, it is something that we have to learn how to develop throughout our life. With this simple 5-minute guide on emotional intelligence, you can get a start on the path to improving your EQ and finding happiness and success in your life.
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How To Develop Emotional Intelligence: A Step-By-Step Guide To Developing Self-Awareness, Improving Your People Skills, and Creating Happier Relationships
There are so many leadership lessons in the Wizard of Oz. I thought I would share some. Recently I went to an end of the year competition with my riding club and one of the events is the fancy dress competition. I went with a Wizard of Oz theme. It is usually heavily contested and this year I went dressed as Dorothy and my horse was the Cowardly Lion. Which is why I began thinking about the deep morals and life lessons in the story.
Vision
Every good leader needs a vision and a plan. Simply put: a strategy. The Yellow Brick Road is an easy to follow strategy so regardless of who your team is they can step on the path with you and know where you are going.
“It’s always best to start at the beginning. And all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road.”
– Glinda the Good Witch of Oz
Courage
Courage requires those in a leadership role to step up when it seems too hard for others. As leaders, most things that make it to your desk are too complex for others or have no clear answer. Making brave decisions requires courage. Courage is also required when you are the one that needs to bring conviction and enthusiasm when you are having a bad day.
“Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What have they got that I ain’t got? ” – Cowardly Lion
Courage doesn’t mean being frightened. Courage is about being scared and showing up anyway.
Dorothy: Weren’t you frightened?
Wizard of Oz: Frightened? Child, you’re talking to a man who’s laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe… I was petrified.
Relationships Matter
When we are managing staff or trying to influence others, they will not seek out your advice because of how much you know, but, because of how much you care. Show people you are genuinely interested in them and their success and they will show respect. Relationships with those around you matter.
“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Experience
Experience counts. Wisdom often comes from our greatest mistakes not from our greatest successes. So don’t discount those around you who have failed. They are often the greatest teachers. Wisdom and experience can be your own, but in leadership, hire people smarter than you and be brave enough to say “I don’t know”.
“A baby has brains, but it doesn’t know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Uncertainty and Change
The tornado could represent several major disruptions. It is the winds of change and things happen outside of our control. 2020 has been a perfect illustration of chaos and significant upheaval. How many of us have felt that discomfort, had to pivot, and had to find new ways to operate outside our comfort zone. We need to learn to embrace change, challenges and uncertainty. They will be there regardless and we need to view them as opportunities.
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” – Dorothy.
Communication
Clear communication is critical because if we explain our vision in a way that others can engage with we have no one on our path. Communication is critical but it also requires active listening. To persuade others, you need to hear them first.
Dorothy: How can you talk, if you haven’t got a brain?
The Scarecrow: I don’t know. But, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?
Heart Led
The Tin Man shows us how to have a heart and have compassion. Leaders need to have a heart and be emotionally engaged with their staff, customers and their organisation. If you can learn to express how you feel authentically, it shows you care. It will attract and motivate others who want to work for you and want to care too. No one wants to work for a cold heartless boss.
“I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world”. – Tin Man
“You people with hearts, have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful”. – Tin Man
We are in this together
Team Diversity
A lion, a tin man, a scarecrow and a dog? All had their strengths and weakness. It is valuing all team members for what they can offer at different times.
“It’s not where you go, its who you meet along the way” – Wizard of Oz
Power and Leadership
There is a difference between power and leadership. We have all come across people in power who do not have leadership skills. Where those skills lack they often resort to power to get others to do what they want. When you pull back the curtain on them they are scared and confused.
“I am Oz, the Great and Terrible,” said the little man, in a trembling voice, “but don’t strike me—please don’t!—and I’ll do anything you want me to.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Self Care
As leaders, we need to value ourselves in the journey and take time to look after our selves as well. Often we have the answers but get burned out and exhausted. Value yourself and your experience and you will find your own ruby slippers to guide you home.
“You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself.” – Glinda the Good Witch
“There is no place like home”
You as a leader also need to do what makes you happy and feeds your soul. Sometimes that is right in front of you and don’t forget to value your family and your personal time and space.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it, to begin with! Is that right? – Dorothy.
There are so many life and leadership lessons in the Wizard of Oz. I found so many that I found it hard to narrow it to 10. The one lesson I have learned in 2020 is self-care. I need to remind myself, “There is no place like home” and the ruby red shoes will always have pride of place on my feet.
Working from home means we need to adapt. It can be great but it also has its challenges. We need new skill sets that we may not have needed before. The pandemic has meant we need to do and lead our teams differently. Learning how to use empathy is the essential skill required in remote work.
The big change is we need more emotional intelligence. The most important skill is improving our empathy.
Empathetic Small Talk
We need to develop our small talk… and make it count. Pay attention to the individual and let them know it’s all about them. Ask them a personal question, relate the question to something that matters to them. Include family, friends, and pets.
Be visible
Turn on your camera and show up as a real person it allows you to be in a vulnerable space for each other. Embrace it. We get it is awkward but this is the new world so we need to find ways to make it work. Make sure it is a presentable space, so please don’t have your dirty laundry in the background. Way too vulnerable.
Vulnerable leadership
It is ok not to know when the pandemic will end. You can say I don’t have all your answers. Also, I take the time to acknowledge how that feels for someone who wants to be reassured at that time. Everyone has their own challenges that are unique to them. Answers are not always required.
Create a different routine
Everyone finds comfort in their predictable routines so create them. Find new ways to create a rhythm whether that is a phone call to check in personally, or team meetings, or even small tasks.
Find a way to relate to your staff to show up and show you care in a way that matters to them. Empathy matters now, but remember the pandemic won’t last forever.
The lessons learned from Finnegan weren’t about horses it was about me.
Anyone who has ridden an anxious horse will tell you “its like sitting on a time bomb waiting for it to go off”
I wonder how many of you can relate to this story and all my problems.
I got back into horse riding after having many years off, and my enthusiasm wasn’t going to be dampened by my reality. I knew I desperately wanted a horse and the one I could afford at the time was a green-off-the-track racehorse with a number of issues. As we all know, for a green rider, is exactly the type of horse you shouldn’t have. He didn’t load onto a horse float, he bucked almost every time you asked for a canter, he was anxious about everything, and I simply couldn’t keep weight on him.
So I am sure you wouldn’t be surprised when I told you I came off this horse multiple times. I experienced a number of broken bones, concussions and damaged discs in my neck. It is hard to remember the number of hospital visits and injuries sustained with this new found love of mine. He was just like a ticking time bomb just waiting for the explosion.
Lessons That Everyone Wanted to Impart
Everyone had advice; all I needed was a different saddle, it was the saddle that needed to be fitted correctly, it’s definitely the bridle causing the problem. When that didn’t work it was; his teeth needed to be done, you obviously just need to lunge him more, tire him out, he needs a chiropractor he is definitely sore. Then it was; his feed is making him anxious, he has ulcers you need the vet. I listened to all of them and tried all of them, each with their own expenses. Now the bills are adding up, and I still don’t have a horse that I can do much with.
Maybe I just needed to spend more and buy a new horse because obviously all of these problems were because my horse just wasn’t right.
The Dream Horse Finnegan
So I bought a bigger better horse, Finnegan. I was so sure that this was the answer because it was love at first sight. I just had to have this horse. He also loaded on the horse float and could be ridden out in public. I thought I bought the dream.
That was until I had one of the worst falls of my life. I broke my pelvis, had severe concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and was in the hospital and unable to walk for weeks.
So now my confidence and self-belief is at an all-time low. Do I sell him too? I tried but just couldn’t part with him.
Incredible Horseman
It was at this time I met an incredible horseman who said to me, I am not taking on any more horses to retrain them. He was meeting horses with human problems. Not people with problem horses. So unless people came with their horses to work on the whole issue he wasn’t going to do it. Which is how I started working on me and my horses.
I needed to solve my own issues. It wasn’t just a horse problem it was also a people problem.
Lessons Learned from Finnegan
So now my experiences are very different and I see things differently. My horses allow me an opportunity for self-development every time I am with them. I am always trying to find new ways to give my horses a stable state of mind and a willingness to learn as there is always something new to explore. Every time I am with my horses I am practicing so many things. Am I present and aware of how I am feeling right now? What is my horse telling me about how I am feeling? When you listen they will tell you.
Finnegan would hold his head on my chest until I started breathing. It took me so long to understand what was happening. My routine was to rush down to the stables after work. If I got home quick enough I could fit a ride in before dark. So I would grab my horse, quickly saddle him and rush into the arena all the time racing before it got dark. Then one day he started putting his head on my chest whilst I was trying to saddle him. I would pat and then quickly rush to get the rest done and he would get more persistent. Until I stopped and smiled and really noticed him and patted. What I started to realise was that the act of patting him and noticing him made me think about him and not the task at hand. So I would breathe and my energy levels dropped. He was a genius. He figured out if he could get me to stop and relax before I rode, I was happier and so was he. Because I was in a different state of mind, I would be more patient and enjoyed my ride. It wasn’t just another thing to fit into my busy day. The epiphany came, when reflecting on my behaviours in an executive coaching session. I became aware of what was actually happening.
So I started being aware of how I was feeling when saddling him up. Every time, if I was rushing and anxious, he would put his head on my chest until I relaxed. It was a habit. As soon as I relaxed he would let me get on with what I was doing. Once I figured out his queue for me our relationship shifted. I started being more aware of the smaller things he was telling me. This is how it started. Finnegan became my teacher and wow what an incredible teacher he was. So many life changing lessons learned from Finnegan but the biggest one is horses can teach.
