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Last Friday, I made a personal leap into the 21st century and purchased my very first Smartphone (the cell phones without a  rotary dial and the two cups attached by a string). Honestly, I held out as long as I could. After months of agonizing research and weighing all the options – I talked to John at the Verizon store. John has worked with me in the past – so he knew what he was getting into.
The EQ Life/Smartphone test started on the drive home when I realized that I had no idea how to perform even the most basic functions beyond turning on the phone. Two hours into playing with the new phone, I felt that ‘head ready to explode’ feeling. You may be familiar with this feeling – it is when every ounce of intellectual capacity leaves your head. This was my trigger to set the phone aside and do something that tapped my skills and demonstrated visible results. I made dinner and ate it!
When I started working with my new phone the next morning, it did not take long for that incompetent, what was I thinking feeling to resurface. I could not believe it – I had just done a presentation on emotional intelligence and talked about emotional hijacks (Daniel Goleman’s description of what happens when the emotional brain hijacks the thinking brain.) Now, I was living what I taught 2 days earlier. Technology seems to hit that emotional hijack hot button for me and I never seem to remember how to manage this very well.
The good news (for me anyway) is that all six people I worked with to make my Smartphone smart and help me build enough confidence/competence to use it, demonstrated the right balance of IQ (cognitive intelligence) and EQ (emotional intelligence). All of them were extremely skilled and knowledgeable (IQ) about the technology. More important to me, however, was their ability to read and manage my emotions (EQ) in a way that was respectful and calming. Each one did a remarkable job of sensing my frustration and impatience. They actively listened and allowed me the time I needed to process the information. I have determined that for me, learning technology is a lot like learning French – it is not intuitive, does not come naturally and the very thought of reading about it drains my creative energy.
People like John, Diane, Tammy, Shannon, Derrick and Chad visibly demonstrated the core principles of Living an EQ life® - being present, being respectful and being open. For that, I am grateful. They will never know how their strong emotional intelligence helped redirect my emotional hijack – and it did.
I knew that Smartphone were smart, but never knew that they were smart enough to actually play a role in Living an EQ life®.
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