PART 2: What are low EQ (emotionally intelligent) leaders costing your organization? $$$ ?

In part 1, I covered what low emotionally intelligent leaders are costing companies in productivity per employee per year. In this part we will cover the damage it does to your employees themselves and how it impacts you the business owner.

The type of damage done to an employee reporting to a low EQ leader is heart breaking. It does not just affect their productivity, the impact of this is much more severe for them because it permeates all other areas of their lives. I am simply going to list the effects of the treatment below:

1. Family life suffers
2. Low self-esteem as a result
3. Mental health issues (as this treatment creates a wound)
4. Desperation
5. Fearfulness
6. Their physical health deteriorates
7. Depression
8. Deterioration of their relationships in all spheres
9. Unable to find another job because of desperation

These are some of the immediate side effects to them as a person. Financially, if they are not on a medical aid it means massive expenses. Should the person ‘redline’ (a term used to describe the breach of the stress level’s peak), and need to be admitted to hospital, the excursion could cost at least $9 500.00 for a three week stay (calculated according to charges by Crescent Clinic in Johannesburg).

What does all of this mean to you as a business? How does it impact you? Consider that these charges can be claimed back from you in light of the fact that you allowed this behavior of a low EQ leader. Hence facilitating it. If they wish to they may take you to court and use the hospitalization as proof of your misconduct as an employer. They can also take you to all the relevant labour departments of your country. I don’t think it is necessary to do the sums for you here – I will leave it up to your imagination.

This is a worst case scenario. However, I am trying to impact on you how serious this is. Not just for your organization but for a fellow human’s life. Another aspect worth mentioning is, how does this allowance of such a leader’s behavior in your business reflect on you?

There are a lot of things that you can regain in life, but a tarnished reputation is not one of them.

It is always best to address a leader with low emotional intelligence as soon as you asses that they are such a leader. However I do strongly advise that you work with them in a positive manner. ‘On boarding’ them or gaining ‘buy in’ from them to submit to a best practice EQ strategy. The way this will work to your advantage is that this low EQ leader changes and becomes a high EQ leader. If the person can not reconcile themselves to the new way of working, they will leave in their own time. Either way, you and the rest of your staff will win because of the change.

Before you digest the food for thought I just handed you, please leave any questions or comments below. They are of great value, not only to myself but to our business.

As always

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson
www.magnetostrat.com
Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

PART 1: Develop Self-Awareness to Develop your EQ (emotional intelligence)

If you read anything on emotional intelligence, you will see the word ‘self-awareness’ come up time and time again. But I get so frustrated because most information sources provide a little two liner on each topic believing that you will head off into the sunset happily applying the two liner advice they gave you. Whooohooo! I do believe if you can complain about something you should be able to do something about it. So here is the 101 on developing self-awareness.

Take a Personality Test

This is the most effective and the fastest way of gaining a solid framework as to what you are about. It is easy to find a personality test online that will give you substantial amount of information resulting from the test. There are just some guidelines you should follow to determine the quality or the value of the information they give you.

1. Is it an automated test?: If you take the test and the system spits out the results within a couple of seconds, you have just had a machine tell you what you are like. I have found these types of tests to be between 50% and 70% correct, but no more than that.

2. Is someone that has no contact with you at all evaluating the answers?: If you are lucky enough and they send you the results in a couple of days, it usually means that one of your fellow humans has evaluated your answers. This is preferable. However if it is someone that you have never had any contact with you are likely to get a 70% to 85% accuracy.

3. Is it complicated?: if it’s complicated, you are more than likely to get frustrated with the mountains of data they have sent you. The point is to get a framework and key words that describe you. Not Einstein’s analysis of e=mc2… If this is the case, I am sorry you have wasted your time. The rule with anything is to keep it simple. The most complicated questions usually have the most uncomplicated answers.

4. Make sure someone asks you questions: It is best to be evaluated by someone that as well as giving you a test, actually speaks to you. Preferably face to face or a Skype call will do. You will know that this person has your best interest at heart and will give you an honest assessment. They will ask you questions about what you like, what you don’t like and how you respond to situations. Then they will combine that information with the information from the test and you will get an accuracy of at least 95% to 99%. We will leave the lagging percentages for human error. But you will get a much more reliable source of information.

I can tell you this with absolute certainty because I have been doing it for years. With the advent of Magneto Strategics, I have had to develop and devise our own personality tests and emotional intelligence tests. Also from being on the road for such a long time in sales and marketing, I refined my assessment skills. A practiced coach will be able to give you 70% accurate feedback about your personality within 10 to 20 of meeting you for the first time. Scary yes, ask a couple of my friends I have done that to… 🙂 . But I learnt to refine that skill because it helped me sell my products. I very rarely accept a ‘No’, because to me that means ‘Go’. And it is most likely only a temporary situation if you can build a strong enough relationship with the person. I always bring home the bacon, no matter how long I have to hunt for it! Why? Because I know how to engage you according to your personality type. The test they give you should take no longer than 20-30min and be straight forward and to the point. The combination of the two types of information is fantastic!

That is your first action – please go and complete a personality test.

In part 2, I will let you know what to do with the information.

Before you school off to do that, please leave your comment or question below – I would love to hear from you!

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson
www.magnetostrat.com
Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

The Sadness of Low EQ (emotional intelligence).

Over the weekend I visited and old friend of mine that part owns and runs the German Club in Edenvale. Dirk mentored me while I was setting up my meat pie manufacturing facility and was a great asset; not to mention – a fabulous mentor. From the moment you meet Dirk, you know where you stand with him. But he has a big heart and saves people form themselves in times of distress. He has a great talent for that and most definitely possesses a very high emotional intelligence.

For a short while, I helped out at the German Club and thus got to know the staff. I am not too sure what the story was with this little girl and her mother that helped Dirk out on some weekends waitressing and with events like beer feasts. I could never get on friendly terms with her. Later I found out that she has a very high IQ and was accepted on a bursary to one of the top universities in the country, as you will never guess what… A rocket scientist. I am absolutely serious.

Being the person I am and always practicing my favorite sport; analyzing people, I just could not get footing with this child. Being in sales and marketing for a long time, when that happens, you immediately start asking yourself, ‘Have I lost my magic touch?‘. It is a rather distressing couple of moments as you try but fail miserably to get your ’emotional hooks’ in. No matter how I tried to get onto a good footing – she just wouldn’t bite. I ascribed it to her youth, rebeliousness and just plain rudeness. Over this last weekend I saw her again. This time, she did not even greet me. She would stare me blankly in the face, I would greet, but she would carry on as if nobody had spoken to her. This behaviour had always puzzled me. It is understandable coming from a small child that suffers a bit of natrual shyness – but she is an adult and understands there is no excuse for rudeness.

But then my analyzing brain started ticking over again. She displays the typical symptoms of a low EQ person. I find it tragic, these people have a hard time going through life. Hence, I do what I do. The symptoms are typically this:

1. Uncalled for Rudeness

You most likely did not ask for this and don’t understand why the person is being rude to you. The reason is that you are viewed as a threat. Astonishing but true. For most part people with low emotional intelligence, suffer low self-esteem. It does not seem like it at first but on closer analysis, you will find it there.

2. Low Self-esteem

They usually have a sidekick with lower self-esteem than they themselves posess. They do this to bolster their own. I mention this because it’s an easy way to spot them. It sounds like a very stupid thing but you get them in sophisticated circles. Easiest place to spot them? In an office invironment – they are the people that contribute the most to ‘office politics’. A person with high emotional intelligence are under no circumstances allowed in their space and they will resort to bullying to get you out of the way. That is what a bully is by the way, a person with low emotional intelligence. They don’t know how to process you in their world, you don’t make sense. Take for instance the girl I mentioned earlier. She showed up with her sidekick ordering her around and making her do stuff for her that a normal person would never do to another out of respect.

3. You are a threat

How on earth do they spot and perceive a person with high emotional intelligence, especially as a threats? To a degree, they have a bit more social intelligence but they use it to manipulate people. This is due to their lack of emotional intelligence. They will pick it up in your ‘vibe’. In other words, your body language. A lot of people are reading this and going, ‘Lady, you have lost it.’ Never, but never underestimate the power of body language. You are a fool if you do. Here are the stats: In everyday conversation, even ofer the phone, body language counts 75% of your total message. In business it counts as much as 85%! If you are emotionally savvy, it comes across in your macro and micro signals. If you read up about social intelligence, you will find how two people’s brains connect seamlessly – sending and receiving messages. When the low emotionally intelligent person picks up on your savvy – you become a target! Why? They simply don’t know how to deal with you, so they do the best they can – limit contact by making things unpleasant. If that does not work they will resort to mistreatment of the emotionally intelligent person.

4. Anything you do will be viewed as wrong

You will never be able to live up to this person’s ‘standard’ – ever. They will only change once they recognize they have a problem. Ignore them and do what you do anyway.

It is truly sad about that girl and many others like her. She will go through life holding her high IQ over everybody’s heads like a sword. Never considering the fact that she might have to change or improver her dealings with her fellow man. Why? Because we are conditioned at school that a high IQ is all you need. Why should she believe anything else? Nobody has given her a reason to. And she sure as hell is not going to listen to me! That is why I have entitled this blog, ‘The Sadness of Low EQ’.

Some may correct (how happy I will be and people around them) and some won’t. A high IQ never determines success or the level thereof. It determines whether you can read, write, count and logically put things together. Success is always determined by your high emotional intelligence.

Thank you for reading our blog. I would love to hear more about our views on the subject and you are welcome to leave your comments below. Or you can simply mail me directly Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com. For more information on Magneto Strategics go to www.magnetostrat.com.

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

Blogging with High EQ (emotional intelligence): Using your empathy

In our high tech world it has been difficult to stay ‘high touch’. Social media has brought the whole world to your fingertips but has created physical isolation bubbles.

The human creature is a social one. So much so that we have intricate body language queue’s, personalities that slot together like puzzle pieces, cultures that know how to communicate in a specific way… Even children at play have their own language.

I read my fellow bloggers well put together thoughts on paper and needless to say I have found some awesome writers! Some, however, sadly forget that there is a person on the other side reading what you wrote. That’s who you do it for, right? Maybe some timely reminders to get your juices flowing then? Here is how to blog with high EQ (emotional intelligence). For some clarity on what emotional intelligence is, go to this link: https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/what-is-eq-emotional-intelligence/

1. Remember who you are speaking to.

There is another person at the other end of the screen reading your thoughts. It is easier to imagine a close friend sitting beside you while letting them hear your thoughts. That way the feeling of speaking to a close fiend will come through in your writing.

2. Energy leaks

Just as you might ask someone to leave you alone for a bit so you can rest, calm down or regather your thoughts, it’s a good idea not to write when you are feeling bad. People will pick up on it.

3. You have worked hard

No doubt, you have worded very hard to generate and earn the trust of your readers. Make sure you always have an illustration, story or word picture that they can relate to. This will draw out your readers natural emotion and help them relate to you. If you are going to start getting mechanical, and I am sure most of us fall short here at some point, you are going to loose your hard earned audience.

4. Empathize! Empathize! Empathize!

Include ‘fellow feeling’ in your pieces. Now here is great news for the guys – it does not mean you have to get mushy and start reading poetry to Daisy the cow at random! Try to feel and understand how your readers might feel at what you are writing. Your reader will appreciate the depth of your empathy and understanding of their situation. Writing a blog is not about you – it’s all about them!

Remember to nurture and take care of your readers with the ‘high touch’ of empathy! That is high emotional intelligence and a base skill of it. You will have a happy and loyal readership for years to come.

As always I would love to get feedback from you. You can leave comments below or mail me directly at Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

How do I develop my EQ (emotional intelligence)?

I wish I had the information I am about to impart to you when I started on this journey. I had to learn this process the hard way and I did it – back to front…

Some background…

At a very young age, I started looking for a way to define the people I saw out perform the rest. This person always has what is commonly termed ‘street smarts’, but at the same time they were highly intelligent. What I noticed about them is that a large number of them don’t finish school or never go to university and are never phased by the fact. They draw people like magnets and know how to get peole to do things like magic. These were everyday people, not the ones that own or run Forutune 500 companies or rock starts. Just people, like you and myself. I started looking for a word or a term to use for this person in 1996/1997. Daniel Goleman wrote his book, ‘Emotionali Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ’ in 1995. I was 16 going on 17 at the time, Daniel Goleman is an American and I am a South African. Why that is relevant is that, anything that gets released in the States only gets to us much, much later… Especially at that time it could take as long as 3 years to catch on/catch up. Thanks to the Internet that gap is becoming smaller every year, phew! How was I suppose to have the info if it could only reach me at such a late stage? I started hearing about the book in the Herbalife circles in late 2001 early 2002. But I never knew that was what I was looking for. And I did not pay much attention to it…

I found it!

After finding one thing after another (tons of research over 15 years – the thought of it exhausts me now), that helped me understand why this type of person functions the way they do; a good friend of mine handed me Daniel Goldman’s book on emotional intelligence. I started reading and everything I had researched and had done, started snapping together at a frightening pace like a magnetic puzzle. He was not introducing me to a new subject by any means. He simply solved my two problems of naming it and fitting all of this stuff together. As things started snapping into place, I could wack myself over the head with a pan! Why on earth did I not read that book sooner! I now knew it was emotional intelligence.

I discovered

What I don’t like about most of the material that has been written about emotional/social intelligence, is they will go on and on and on about what it is. Not necessarily how you develop it so that you can be your best at it. I have a COLOSSAL problem with that! Like I mentioned before, I learnt how to do this back to front. So I know HOW TO implement and grow it! I get very frustrated with what you have to say if you are not actually going to get to the point and show me how to do it (sigh).

These are the tools you use

I must warn you: If you are looking for a ‘shortcut’ to being a superstar in your field with EQ… This will not work for you… Just like everything worth having – and trust me this is – you will have to work for it. The upside of being patient and working on it, is that you can implement the skills immediately and have instant results. For example, with the very next conversation you have after a coaching consultation, webinar or seminar. But it takes time to ‘rewrire’ yourself. It is the same process the NLP coaches (Nuero-linguistic Programming) use to ‘retrain your brain’s’ hard wiring. Below is a list of tools we use at Magneto Strategics to mentor you to develop your emotional intelligence.

– Personality Analysis: This is the most powerful tool you can use. The foundation skill to emotional intelligence is is (in a nutshell) self mastery. This requires you to know how you ‘tick’ and what makes you ‘tick’ the way you do.
– 360 Degree Analysis: The best way to indicate to yourself, areas in your character that you could improve on, is to get an understanding of people’s perception of you. In this Analysis, people in your life are asked to give their opinion (or perception) about different facets about you. The people in our lives act like mirrors and the rule is, you can only attract what you reflect.
– Strength Channeling: We take the strengths typical to your personality type and help you channel those. Focusing on the positive, your strengths, auto addresses your weaknesses. This enables you to up skill your weaknesses at a later stage more effectively. Ultimately, it is a colossal waste of time to focus on your weaknesses.

And that’s it! That is how you develop EQ and these are the tools we use to coach and mentor you to a higher emotional intelligence. With persistence and consistency anybody can learn this skill or ‘upgrade’ their current skill level. Here is some more good news! These skills automatically spill over into your social intelligence…

The impact of emotional intelligence on your life is of great importance. It is the diffrence between success and failure. It is the pivot between being mediocre and being great! A sudy done on high achivers revealed that 90% of these people have high EQ’s! These are the people that have fascinated me form such a long time ago until today. You have just got to love people!

I would love to hear from you! Please give me your thoughts and opinions as this is valuable feedback to us. Leave your comments below or mail me directly at suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com.

My wish for you as always…

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

Low EQ bosses… Why do they get promoted?

Want is a low EQ (emotionally intelligent) boss? They are easily recognizable due to the following things:

-They are usually highly intelligent people, speaking of IQ.
-They have low tolerance levels for anything emotional. Using expressions like: ‘Just deal with it, you are a professional, aren’t you?’
-People are fearful of them.
-They typically have a negative reputation for their dealings with people and a nickname of sorts will accompany the water cooler chat about them.
-Their pride is to report to their superior about the results they are generating out of the team, giving mostly no credit to the people that do the work.
-They are typically (this is generalized and not limited) middle management, working for a big corporate.
-Their departments have a big staff turn over (businesses, please take note. This does affect your bottom line.)
-They will get labeled a ‘Bully Boss’.
-You do not feel free or want to encourage any type of engagement with them more than is necessary.

You would rather sacrifice your family time that face their wrath.

Simply put, these people are bad news. So why do they get promoted? They have learnt how to manipulate people and keep them in a state of fear to use to their advantage. The effect is this; They do get results out of a team and quickly. For any business, that is the sound of money being deposited in the bank. But is it as much as you think when you calculate your staff turn over against it? I will discuss this in an upcoming article.

So what it boils down to is that the ‘Big Boss’, business owner, MD, CEO or whatever the case may be, is happy. This is due to two things; like I just mentioned, it delivers money to the bank account and secondly, they see results. And there is your reason as to why they get promoted. They have mastered the art of manipulation and fear instillment that produces the results with their teams for them so they can promote themselves to their superior. Brilliant sale! Nasty tactics…

This is how these people survive. I am now going to empathize with them – I by no means justify or condone their actions. However, for the sake of understanding why they do what they do, I will explain. For someone to be able to give such treatment to others, they must find nothing wrong with it to a certain degree. To accomplish this, they have to treat themselves in like manner. The rule of thumb here is that a person will treat others the way they treat themselves. How does this work?

You can see it by their behavior. Typically they will work very hard and mostly over work themselves. They will work on weekends, form home or on leave, and make sure you know it. Then the behavior flips around and they have a different attitude. They will call the office and say they are working from home. Take a lot of single sick leave days, go on extended lunches and sit and talk to other colleagues for hours. They repeat this pattern with you as the employee. They make unusually high demands and expect you to deliver. They will also expect you to work weekends and from home or whatever the case may be. Then all of a sudden they will take you to lunch, spoil you with small gifts and gestures and round and round we go.

For your average level headed decent person this is confusing behavior. One minute you will be treated like dirt and the next like royalty. This has a very negative effect on you psychologically. Understand that they don’t know any better, it does bother their conscience, hence the sweet an doting behavior – but it is not viewed as ‘a big deal’. They will tell you to be an adult about it when they turn on you again. Realize that this situation will never be corrected in your favor. All your ‘Big Boss’ will see is his bank account and the results he is getting. Therefor you are replaceable but your emotionally unintelligent boss is the asset to the company. Which one of the short straws would you like…?

My advice to you – leave. Find a boss that will treat you with respect.

Look out for my next post: Low EQ leaders: What are they costing you?

I would love to have your opinion or simply hear from you if you have a question. You can mail me back a suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com or leave a comment below on the WordPress site https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com

Grow & Prosper!

Suzy Wilson

What is EQ (emotional intelligence) ?

No, I am not going to give you the usual rundown. You can Google that and read the hundreds of articles by the same title and they will give you the Doc’s facts and figures. I am going to write this article so you can find an example of high EQ in your own life! Someone you can relate to. I am also going to touch on EQ’s relation to IQ.

Have you ever heard someone you know say of someone else you both know, ‘They are just one of those people?’. You must know somebody like that? Think of them: They seem to have it all figured out. They are mostly always calm in any situation, know what to do, have great families and friends, they have good jobs and just overall a good life. Not without it’s up’s and down’s, but they just seem to manage better than others.

Most noticeable about them is that people love them. They seem to have a type of ‘groupie following’, but done with great respect. They do this regardless of personality type or that fact that they are an introvert or an extrovert. (Introverts are commonly misunderstood as to shyness. Most of them are not shy, they simply deal with social situations differently. In some cases they are better at this then some extroverts. FYI: I am heavily extroverted)

My favorite example to use is Sir Richard Branson. He left school at the age of 15 due to his dyslexia. Now, I am sure it is plain to everybody that Richard Branson is an intelligent man. However if IQ was the only determining factor of success in this world, I am a bit perplexed about the many people like Richard Branson who excel in whatever they do even with a very average or even a not so average IQ. It is clear, Richard Branson, is ‘one of those people’.

Take for instance Carin Hendricks. I have great respect for this lady; she is dynamic, a leader, determined and people want to be sound her. You know when she enters a room because she has a great presence about her. If you know a bit about me, I acquired most of my business acumen form MLM’s (Multi Level Marketing companies). This is where I know Carin Hendricks from. Early in my career I joined Herbalife. They have some of the best training around as far as running your business. Carin was an air hostess when she joined Herbalife. She loved the products and the idea that it could generate an income for her. So she quit her job and became a full time distributor. I sat in one of her trainings as she told her story one day and she added a little bit that I did not know. This stuck in my mind. At the time I was still on my journey to founding Magneto and it sharpened my questions for me. What she said was this: She had to study hard to get a C average at school and needed to be diligent about it. My jaw dropped and her words kept spinning in my head. My old friend ‘The Question’ made his voice loud, screaming at me: ‘What makes her successful?’. The last time I checked what she was earning monthly, it was around $36 000.00! Heaven knows what it is now… And she is an outstandingly good leader. Carin is obviously intelligent, it is plain to all that know her. My question was answered years later when I learnt about emotional intelligence. Everything that I had researched and put together up to that point, revolved around emotional intelligence. I just never had the words to describe it though. Now it is plain that Carin as a very high EQ. In fact she is a master at it!

Can you relate to it now? Did you find someone you know that is like this? I am sure you did. For those that like the facts and figures, I have briefly listed the emotional intelligence description below:

Rundown of what emotional intelligence is:

Knowing your emotions.
Managing your own emotions.
Motivating yourself.
Recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions.
Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions of others.

This is how you recognize them and I am sure you must have sat and marveled (as I did) at one of them. The thing is that, emotional intelligence is a learnt skill. Unlike IQ, it can be developed and grown. This is our mission at Magneto Strategics, to mentor people and develop them in their EQ skills so they to can enjoy the benefits it brings.

We are running a special at the moment for you to be able to do so. Check out the top of our blog page on our site under the events section. You can get a Strength Channeling session (learning to channel your personality to strengthen your EQ) for half price. This is a special to celebrate the launch of our site www.magnetostrat.com .

I would love to have your opinion or simply hear from you if you have a question. You can mail me back a suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com or leave a comment below on the WordPress site https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com .

Next time: Low EQ bosses. Why do they get promoted?

Until next time!

Grow & Prosper!

Suzy Wilson

The 6 top reasons why some self-help guides, motivational speaking and coaching DON’T WORK

This is my first post for Magneto Strategics and it is bound to be controversial. But I am quite willing to take the plunge. I want to clearly convey my feeling about this matter first and what triggered the response.

I am sure my fellow colleges all around the world who have made a study in their specific field of the human/social/psychology/psychiatry put in a lot of hard work, like myself, to become authoritative on the subject. Hence my aversion to people that one day get out of bed and decide that they are now a life coach or something to the effect. This is the problem with the motivational/coaching/mentoring industry. Every Tom and his two friends are now “Life Coaches” or “Motivational Speakers” or whatever.

I was searching for video’s to post on our site when I stumbled across an interview conducted with a person that was introduced as a life coach and a trusted advisor to Harvard Business. This individual also writes articles for a publication of Harvard Business. This person was speaking on the ‘Alfa Male’ and the ‘Alfa Female’. With reference to humans, yes. Two minutes into the interview I knew that this individual had no idea what she was speaking about. And judging by the body language of the interviewer (I felt very sorry for him, at least he was good at his job), he was thinking the same thing as me. And by her babbling and uncomfortable body language, she had no idea on how to answer the interviewer.

She was speaking on my field of expertise (applying Personality types and body language as tools to learn Emotional Intelligence). What she didn’t know is that she was referring to the Formidable Commander personality type (commonly ‘A’ type), not even knowing how to classify they type of personality! Supposedly what she is knowledgable about! She could not explain why, what she describes as the ‘Alfa Male’, behaves the way he does or what the motivations are or where it stems from. She could not even tell you that a quarter of people on the planet belong to that specific personality type. She could not explain that the different combinations of the personality types will either strengthen or temper the Formidable Commander type. These things are basic!

I was laughing so loud I almost fell off my couch! Do you see my point?

So here are the 6 top reasons why some self-help guides, motivational speakers and life coaching DOES NOT WORK

• Anybody can be a ‘coach’ these days.
• They might be legit, but offer you no emotional base to work from, the way that Emotional Intelligence does. This is vital for learning interpersonal skills.
• You have signed up for Tom and his two friend’s advice and you are wondering why it’s not working. They carry now weight or substance and will feed you ‘fluff’ by the ton’s! Candy floss is nice, but by the ton is not healthy.
• Some are unethical sales people, often referred to as ‘Tin Men’. They will push you into saying yes. (I have a sales and marketing background as well. There are Sales People, and then there are ‘sales people’)
• These people have figured out a way to join ‘The Cash Cow Dash’. This is highly unethical, because you are working with people’s lives! Your motivation should be helping people, not money.
• They think they can hide behind, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If they don’t actually sit in front of you but you have already bough one of their products online, it’s more likely that they will not be accountable. A good service provider will at least be willing to set up a Skype call with you to have a face to face discussion.

In Robert Kyiosaki’s words, “Bad advice, is expensive advice.” Below is my strategy on picking a good advisor. Because lets face it, we would all love to sit and have a chat to Daniel Goleman about our Emotional Intelligence, but I don’t think he is affordable to all of us. There are good advisors out there. Even if they don’t have and official qualification to stick on their walls. I have found some Brilliant advisors without a formal qualification, but that have done their due diligence and have become authorities in their fields. There are good people out there. Here is how you find them.

Find out who the main authority is in the specific field you want guidance on.

Look at their website, blogs, forums and their books.

Then see if you can find any of their understudies and see if they follow a similar pattern to their mentor.

Then find their understudies. Look at the pattern and quality of advice and teaching each of these offer and you will be able to find someone who is affordable and will be able to do the job just as well as the authority in that field.

It sounds like a lot, but rumor has it that Google is rather quick at finding answers… 😉

Unfortunately it is a sifting process, similar to looking for gold. But once you have found what you are looking for it is worth it’s weight in gold and then some.

Good growing to you!

Suzy Wilson