Peak Experiences That I Have

¶ … peak experiences that I have had as someone who has benefitted from coaching is a brief lesson regarding the value of emotional intelligence. This concept is slowly spreading throughout the corporate world, and is the general notion that people need to be cognizant of, and appropriately manage, their emotions in order to provide successful leadership. Oftentimes, one's behavior is directly correlated to one's emotions (Zeus and Skiffington). One of my managers noted that I had the tendency to try to avoid conflict in my daily interactions with others.

This is a fairly normal occurrence, yet can sometimes impede the way for the most efficacious rendering of one's job -- particularly when such a person is responsible for supervising others, which I was in this particular instance. Once my manager noted this characteristic about myself, it definitely became easier for me to be aware of and modify my actions with my subordinates, as well as with my superiors.

This experience truly shows me the value of emotional intelligence, which I will always try to emphasize in my own executive coaching forays. One of the best things that has worked for me in the past that can well serve me in becoming a credible coach is the cultivation of listening skills. I realized that most people can hear one another, but listening actually takes a concerted effort on the part of the listener. In fact, I usually attempt to practice what is known as active listening.

Active listening is becoming fully engaged with the speaker, and actually asking prudent questions based around the input that he or she offers. Most people tend to listen for the first few seconds or sentences, and then tend to tune the other person out or leap to conclusions about solutions or appropriate responses to whatever issue is being addressed.

However, by engaging in active listening I have found that I can become more fully aware of not problems but also the root causes of those problems, which can be used to avoid future ones as well as terminate those already existent (Cortright, 2012). One of my signature strengths is the degree of empathy I naturally have and can cultivate in the workplace environment.

Without the proper usage and awareness of emotional intelligence, however, this strength has the potential to become a weakness as it was one of the reasons I made a point to try to avoid conflict with my fellow employees. However, once I became aware of the fact that I demonstrate this proclivity to avoid conflict and have corrected my behavior to cease doing so, I have foundthat my empathetic nature is a valuable asset in the corporate world.

It is due to my empathy that I am able to be a good listener and practice active listening so that I can get to the root causes of what issues -- both implicit and explicit -- motivate speakers to address certain topics. Furthermore, this degree of empathy oftentimes translates into a fairly good rapport and degree of amicability with others. Another intrinsic personality trait that I have that benefits me in the corporate world and in coaching scenarios is that my personality is extremely mutable.

As such, I am able to relate to a wide variety of people in varying circumstances in a way that oftentimes, my peers cannot. Granted, in the corporate environment there is a definite limit on the types of situations and sorts of.