This post is here to offer you some conscious and intentional communications training to help build your EQ muscles. Try this exercise to help you prepare for and lean into your next difficult conversation with a goal of mutual understanding and connection.

Does this look like professional success to you?

Working 12+ hour days, chasing the next deal, putting out fires and constantly feeling exhausted, thinking of your family when you’re at the office, and the office when you’re with your family. You sleep poorly, your workouts and stamina are becoming a distant memory, and you can’t remember the last time you actually flirted with your significant other? 

Then why are so many of us working and living this way? And what do you do to change it?

How do we fix the not fixing?

While quickly providing solutions to employees’ problems can be tempting, given your pressing deadlines and long list of important tasks, consider the value-building approach of asking them the right questions, which include benefits like helping them develop their problem-solving abilities, creativity, and resourcefulness.

Try a 5-minute self check-in exercise to build self-awareness.

If you find yourself struggling to inspire and motivate your employees, and keep them feeling supported so that they can do their best work, I’ll tell you what I tell my clients—it’s not your fault, it’s human nature.

Your work is no longer about believing you have to have all the answers, all the time, and telling others what to do, instead it becomes seeking input from the team around you and empowering them to get the job done.