Storytelling Through Songs

Tuesday evening as part of a MeetUp for a local writers’ group, I had the opportunity to listen to Amy Kelly, reporter for UltimateGuitar.com. Amy has a very positive and energetic demeanor, and she uses words like “passion” and “fired up” to describe her motivation for writing, especially for writing about music. She shared a piece she wrote from a recent interview with jazz musician Lonnie McFadden, which appeared in the September 23 issue of KCMetropolis.org.  If it’s not clear in the article, Amy was genuinely impressed by Mr. McFadden and his stories about his life as a musician.

Sometimes the most pronounced differences between the generations are in the soundtracks of the time and place in which we are born and come of age. At times, however, music brings generations together to celebrate a shared appreciation and understanding of the craft of storytelling through song.

Working on My EQ

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last blogged. This month I’ve been busy coaching and conducting assessments and debriefing on emotional intelligence and personality type, two of my favorite topics. I’ve also been busy consulting on assessments and test construction for a large corporation.

This afternoon I found my way to a small and comfortable neighborhood coffee shop, with jazz playing in the background. It’s one of those rainy days in Kansas City. My hot ginger lemon tea tastes wonderful and has helped to motivate me to pick up with blogging again.

I love rainy days like this where it’s not so cool outside that a jacket is required. The rain is more than a trickle and far less than a torrential downpour. I have some time to think about the events of the past month, to just reflect on my experiences debriefing emotional intelligence assessments to individuals.

I’ve administered and debriefed on the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (BarOn EQ-i). Among the five scales measured by the BarOn EQ-i is General Mood, which encompasses Optimism and Happiness. What happens when an individual’s results return showing low optimism and happiness? Some people are surprised by their results. Others are not and tend to agree and self-validate the assessment results. It can be a sensitive subject for people, and sometimes seeing objective and valid assessment results will lead to action.

Developing an action plan and writing in a journal are at least two methods for improving emotional intelligence competencies. Once an action plan is developed, weekly action steps may be implemented. It’s also important to have an accountability partner, a person who holds you accountable for taking the action steps needed to reach short term and long term goals. A coach is one person who makes a great accountability partner, since sometimes those closest to an individual have a vested interest in seeing that the individual does not grow or learn.

Journal writing as another method to improve emotional intelligence competencies allows for reflection, which may lead to self-awareness. Keeping a gratitude journal, recording those things for which you are most grateful, helps put everything in perspective and can improve happiness. A friend once shared with me that if it was really difficult to think of anything, being grateful for clean, running water was a place to start.

This afternoon, I’m grateful for the rain drops, the jazz music, and the hot ginger lemon tea. I’m grateful for the opportunity individuals gave me this month to assess areas like personality type and emotional intelligence, and to put their trust in me to give them strategies to move forward with an action plan to build on their strengths and improve on their areas of enrichment.

I know I have a lot to be grateful for, and I also have a lot to learn. I’m still working on my EQ and probably will be for the rest of my adult life.