Evaluate Your Emotional Agility

MANAGING YOURSELF

by Susan David
November 22, 2013

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Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, was known for
pithy, uplifting quotes like “Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry,”
“Change your thoughts and you change your world,” and “When you get up in the
morning, you have two choices — either to be happy or to be unhappy. Just choose to be
happy.”

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to do a “quick-fix” on difficult thoughts and emotions;
the human brain doesn’t work that way. Thousands of thoughts and feelings course
through our minds each day. And trying to avoid, ignore or “manage” the negative ones
only make them more powerful.  My colleague Christina Congleton and I wrote an
article about this for HBR in November, encouraging readers to build something we call
“emotional agility” – that is, the ability to attend to and use one’s inner experiences
(both good and bad) in a more mindful, productive way.

THIS ARTICLE ALSO APPEARS IN: The first step in the process is to
Teams at Work:
Intelligence Emotional
(with Facilitator’s understand your patterns:  Do you buy into
Guide) your negative thoughts and emotions?
TOOLKIT
$99.95 (Wow. I really blew that presentation. I’m
not doing any more public speaking.) Or do
View Details you avoid them? (Just forget about the
presentation. Focus on something else.)  Or
both?
/
The response to the article has been so strong that we’ve worked with HBR to develop
an interactive assessment designed to help you with this first part of the process and
then offer advice tailored to your specific profile. Click here to take the assessment.

Susan David is a founder of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching, is on faculty at

Harvard Medical School and is recognized as one of the world’s leading management
thinkers. She is author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Emotional Agility (Avery)
based on the concept named by HBR as a Management Idea of the Year. An in-demand
speaker and advisor, David has worked with the senior leadership of hundreds of major
organizations, including the United Nations, Ernst & Young, and the World Economic Forum. You can receive her
free Emotional Agility assessment here. .

This article is about MANAGING YOURSELF

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