Self-Actualization, show notes, episode 2

Here are some notes and links from today’s show. Please join us in two weeks, on Friday August 14th at 9:30AM Pacific, for our next broadcast on Emotional Self-Awareness. Need a reminder? You can subscribe to our EQ and You reminders.

Special thank you to Jill Cory for her contributions today.

Using questions about emotional intelligence, including self-actualization, in an interview setting.

See Julie and Julia for an interesting cinematic meditation on self-actualization.

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Partial notes

0:00 Introduction by David Cory
0:30 David: Today’s episode is about the Self-Actualization competency of the MHS model of emotional intelligence, originally devised by Reuven Bar-on.
0:50 Kim: Self-actualization is about the concept of living a meaningful, fulfilled life…
1:30 Kim: Values and reflection on values is an important part of this…
1:45 David: It sounds to me like we’re talking about an ongoing process, a journey…
2:00 Kim: Yeah, part of self-actualization is setting goals, but only as a part…
2:50 David: Self-actualization might not be exactly a competency…
4:00 Kim: There’s a fluidity to self-actualization…
5:25 Kim: An interesting example is Jerry Seinfeld, who had huge success, and then after his show ended, he went back to stand up comedy, which he loved…
6:35 David: [Jill’s Story]Jill had a dream job and that utilized all of her capacities and in a field that she was very passionate about. Losing that job due to cut backs resulted in a loss of fulfillment… evidence that self-actualization may be one of the context-dependent scores. It raises questions and the competency may be the ability to make it happen…
9:20 Kim: Yeah, like the stages of life can impact our sense of fulfillment… as we go through life, our values shift. A job can be very fulfilling and when it’s gone, there’s an opportunity to reassess…
one of the big steps from management to leadership is for managers to find ways to encourage and inspire their reports to find more meaning and have more meaningful progress…
11:20 David: Mindfulness exercises can be a brilliant way to tune into our interests and values…
12:45 Kim: …some interesting situations arise between parents and children...
15:45 David: Yes, parenting and leadership have a lot of similarity… also, self-actualization and employ engagement are closely related. Maslow didn’t think about the workplace much [laughter]
17:20 Kim: Yeah, and we’re often living through our work, so we need to be cautious. Looking back and hindsight can be interesting…
18:40 David: This is evidence of our shifting values, a shift in perspective, or even a “mid-life crisis”…
20:00 Kim: Retirement is a common powerful example of a shift or transition
21:00 Kim: an important part of this is engagement…
21:30 Retirement is a kind of transition. Transitions, in general, are potent times for assessing self-actualization. Transitions, like retirement, can be very difficult. They miss the meaning and the purpose…
22:30 David: One question I have, and I lack empirical evidence, is whether service work and volunteerism is an overlooked opportunity to improve self-actualization
23:30 Kim: Road rage metaphor: other drivers are not obstacles to one’s journey. An important part of self-actualization is curiosity…
24:15 David: Yes, we can’t just focus on our own needs. We’re social beings, and we need to be very aware of the needs of others…
25:00 David: Many managers think their job in the family is to focus on their career. But this doesn’t fit with the view that other family members have. So priorities and values are shared and we all need to make changes…
27:20 Kim: acknowledging a lack of self-actualization is very vulnerable making, and it’s an interesting choicepoint…
28:00 David: It’s important to say that we’re not psychologists [except Diane Walters], we’re workplace performance specialists and we look at assessment, training and coaching. If an employee is experience a serious lack of meaning and a sense of purpose, that can be serious and it could mean that someone is encouraged to access their employee assistance program or get counselling and support in other ways…
28:50 The movie Julie and Julia is mentioned…
29:20: David: There’s a great scene in a humorous movie, The Great Race?, and the character rips off the rearview mirror and says “we don’t care what’s behind us, only what’s in front” … [laughter]
39:50 David: Join us on our next call in two weeks, for our conversation on emotional self-awareness…
30:00 Kim: Thanks for joining us live and watching us later on Youtube, we’re reviewing all fifteen emotional intelligence competencies over the next little while. See you in two weeks…

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