Robert C Robertson

The emotional fitness & technology creating high-performance teams.

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Defining Emotional Fitness compared with Emotional Intelligence

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Emotional Fitness is a newer term. Many people know about Emotional Intelligence, yet Emotional Fitness a subset of the broader category of Emotional Intelligence.

As explained in the following table, Emotional Fitness is more focused on the internal use and expression of emotions. While Emotional Intelligence is also focused on external relationships, as explained below.

We define Emotional Fitness as our level or ability to fully understand and use our emotional capacity to achieve high-performance.

Like a muscle, our emotions only support us if we use them. Hence good Emotional Fitness refers to being fully aware and in-tune emotionally, able to express and feel the full array of emotions. Not just being positive, able to handle and beneficially use negative emotions.

Research suggests real health benefits are associated with good Emotional Fitness, as well as inner confidence and self-esteem growth. In today’s video, Robert C Robertson defines Emotional Fitness and shares a personal example of emotional expression from a tennis match.

Robert C Robertson as a guest being interviewed on the Go All In podcast

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It was a delight to be interviewed by Robert Brus for his Go All In podcast which you can find on on iTunes or listen below.

Thanks to Robert Brus for his interesting interview questions.

Robert C Robertson

Why the trend towards Authentic Leadership?

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In today’s more connected world of social media, the internet of things and the always-on smartphone, the evolution of leadership styles and communication has been significant over the years.

With this greater transparency today, less acceptable is a dictator style of leader, who does not listen and barks orders based on fear and a need for power.

Today the trend is towards being more authentic, and even vulnerable, when appropriate as a leader. The outcome is generally a much more approachable and trusted leader, who people tend to better relate to and understand. Ultimately they tend to feel more inspired by their leader.

Below are a series of 1-minute video clips where I explore Authentic Leadership and some interesting aspects around how our attitude creates different levels of self-expression.

Part 1 Authentic Leadership – How positive thinking can disconnect from the truth

For me, positive thinking was a disconnection from reality, by going into the head, rather than being real and true. The head will process and analyse, hence is often not as authentic in the present moment. I am not such a fan of positive thinking, yet I am a BIG fan of optimistic thinking. The difference is not hiding from reality in the head, hence to feel and understand the situation as I make choices.

Part 2 Authentic Leadership – How over-authentic sharing can be draining

Over-Authentic sharing can be draining. In this 1-minute video, I share two examples of how people being too authentic can be draining. While being authentic is generally good, we don’t need to know every single thought! If we fully trust our internal instincts then our autopilot filter allows total freedom to be yourself. Speaking without thinking is true freedom.  For me, it is like you don’t care what others think. Speaking without thought.

Part 3 Authentic Leadership – How self-belief is needed for Authentic Leadership

In this 1-minute video, I look at how self-belief is critical to allow true Authentic Leadership. I explain how self-doubt had previously been a significant factor in reducing my self-expression to say what I thought others wanted to hear. Yet today I speak instinctively without caring so much about what others think.

Do you agree? Look forward to any thoughts you have on Authentic Leadership by commenting below.

Follow Your Dreams Talk Testimonial

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Feeling inspired by the feedback and wonderful testimonial from a recent talk. The content is very close to my heart, with the core message, Dare to Dream. I was the guest speaker at the NZIE graduation ceremony which had 400 people attending.

A core message was that as children we have dreams, at one end of this scale we may dream that we may grow up and marry a Prince or Princess for example. Or a more realistic one is to be a fireman or other career dreams, yet our parents, friends or mentors may say “you can’t do that!” Or “you must be more realistic.” Hence the message was about keeping our dreams alive, in order to live a more satisfying passionate life.

Another core concept was how fear may stop us from following some of our dreams. Hence I then defined and talked about Emotional Fitness and how to overcome the fear that may hold us back from achieving higher performance in life, sport or business, by providing practical ideas to help live our dreams alive.

What is your dream? Are your dreams still alive? My hope is that you don’t go to the grave without having a go and fully exploring your dreams and goals in life. #robertcrobertson

The Importance of vision and purpose to create a high performance team

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In this roaming selfie video blog, I avoid the rain and look at two key aspects of high performance, high-productivity teams. These are how a vision and purpose can excite and engage the entire team, to feel part of something bigger. Helping fuel the inner desire to be part of something special and make a difference. In this selfiemotivation.com video post below, I look at how the Accountability Dashboard help to create high-productivity teams with a shared vision and purpose.

#robertcrobertson

Fascinating Sunday TVNZ program tonight about Anxiety in NZ Young People

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Fascinating Sunday TVNZ program tonight about Anxiety. Anxiety is a natural human reaction which most people experience at some point, yet normally people refer to anxiety as when it is an anxiety disorder, which can be debilitating, impacting our choices and reactions in daily life.

Anxiety can be shown as nervousness, fear, apprehension, or worry. When it is more severe, then it can affect how we feel and behave, and manifest in physical symptoms. Mild anxiety is common when challenged, which may be a general state of worry or fear before a test, examination, interview or new experience. While severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life.

While some degree of anxiety is normal. Anxiety is considered a problem when symptoms interfere with a person’s ability to sleep or otherwise function. Generally speaking, anxiety occurs when a reaction is out of proportion with what might be normally expected in a situation.

The following video is a summary of the full Sunday TVNZ story.

See the full Sunday TVNZ program in my longer blog post on my Emotion Fitness site http://www.emotional.fitness/interesting-tvnz-program-about-anxiety-in-young-people/

How Emotional Fitness and Technology creating High-Productivity Talk Broadcast via Facebook Live

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Last week felt like a significant junction along the speaking journey. I combined the various angles that I speak on into a new talk format called:

How Emotional Fitness & Technology create High-Performance Peak-Productivity “flow.”

It is all about how the speed of technology change is increasing causing great workplace stress. Based on the way we communicate and do business is changing. How to work smarter, to be more productive, by navigating the growing speed of change in technology, and using the 1PagePlan to stay focused and grow as the explosion of information and new artificial intelligence tools take over.

This provided a great link to Emotional Fitness as a core method of building resilience and confidence in the face of stress and change. How our inner feelings and thoughts help to influence and create our future reality.

While I was stoked with the talk and the amazing feedback ratings, I also saw some huge areas of growth for next time, to improve and do it better next time. See below for the video which was broadcast via Facebo0ok Live to be viewed by 118 during the evening event.

Authentic Leadership in NZ Politics?

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After the election in the weekend, today is the dawn of the new NZ government, except we don’t know who it is! This post is inspired by a number of comments on LinkedIn yesterday. I am going to stay away from any political debate and ask this question.

Who is the best leader for NZ?

Or the real question is, who has the best leadership style for NZ? By taking out the word political, I am simply going to comment on the personal leadership style of Bill English and Jacinda Arden,  one of which will be confirmed as our Prime Minister.

Forgetting any political persuasions, I have found Jacinda Arden’s communication and personal leadership style refreshing. The reason is she seems authentic and of higher integrity than Bill English. The trend towards Authentic leadership being more successful is not new. Bill George’s book, Authentic Leadership wrote about this in 2003. Yet until Jacinda, I have not seen this in a NZ political leader. To me, she seems the more trustworthy of the two.

“Authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership.” — Harvard Business Review, January 2015

Authentic leadership is defined in this Psychology Today article as having 4 elements:

  • Know Thyself
  • Be Genuine
  • Be Fair-Minded
  • Delementsght Thing

Authentic Leadership is certainly not something I associate with NZ politicians.  More common is the old style of leadership, or at its extreme is Donald Trump who seems to have invented the term alternative facts. He seems like a bully, pushing people around with little regard for anybody other than himself. At its worst, we could call this the direct dictator leadership style.

I would welcome any comments. Do you agree or disagree with my view? It is an interesting debate so would love to get other peoples view on this topic.