Podcast appearances and mentions of Christopher D Connors

Emotional intelligence is a hot topic that has become a buzzword in recent years.  However, many executives and professionals don't really understand what emotional intelligence is or know why it's important.  Do you know how to focus on emotional intelligence as a leader? In this episode, you will learn more about the foundations of emotional intelligence and why it begins with self-awareness.  Our host and CEO Porschia, alongside our guest, Christopher D. Connors, will also share their insight on the significance of emotional intelligence in leadership.  They will also discuss aspects of self-management, goal setting, prioritization, and empathy as related to emotional intelligence.  The conversation also includes more detail on how leaders can build high performing teams as a result of their work with emotional intelligence. Click here for full show notes and to learn more: https://www.fly-highcoaching.com/emotional-intelligence-as-a-leader/ Whether you're an employee or an entrepreneur, it's important to address obstacles that stop you from reaching your goals. Check out our FREE Kick-Start Your Success Course: https://fly-high-coaching.thinkific.com/courses/kick-start-your-success-course   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fly-high-coaching/support

The Four Stages of Success, Written by Christopher D Connors and discussed by C.L. King was extremely enlightening. Check out additional work by Chris Conners at:   http://chrisdconnors.com

Christopher D. Connors is the bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader and The Value of You. He is an author, executive coach, and keynote speaker who helps leaders increase their emotional intelligence, prioritize goals, and build thriving organizations. He works with executives and leaders at Fortune 500 companies, sports organizations, schools, and universities. His writing has appeared in CNBC, World Economic Forum, Quartz, CEO World, Virgin Media, Thrive Global, and Medium, and he’s been a guest on FOX and ABC TV programs. Christopher is happily married to his beautiful wife and is the proud father of three amazing, rambunctious baseball-loving boys. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.   “Adversity is your best friend. In every adversity, there is always an opportunity that is going to come out of that.” Christopher Connors   Worst investment ever The big move Christopher grew up just outside New York City on Long Island while his wife grew up in South Carolina. They had been living in New York when the wife said she wanted to leave. And so they decided to relocate to Atlanta. Christopher wasn’t emotionally or mentally prepared to make a move, but he did it anyway as it was the right move for his family. Physically, Christopher was in Atlanta, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, he was still in New York. He was living this life where he was just struggling to put the pieces together. A thriving career While Christopher was struggling to adjust to the new life, career-wise, he was thriving. Christopher landed the most prestigious job opportunity he’s ever had. The job was very high paying, and he got to work with some of the top corporate clients in all of Atlanta, including Coca Cola, Delta, UPS, and the Home Depot. His head was just not in the game Despite having landed the job of his dreams, Christopher was still not settled and was struggling to adapt. He was still trying to figure out a little bit more about himself in terms of what he truly wanted to do. Even though on paper, this opportunity looked like a dream job, the more he went through it, the more he realized it wasn’t. Getting booted Christopher tried out a couple of different assignments that didn’t work. He just wasn’t able to employ emotional intelligence to be able to separate his personal life from his work life. About 10 months into it,  he was fired. Here he was less than a year into a move with a young son and a wife, and all of a sudden, he didn’t have an income coming in. It was a big blow to his ego because he had been successful in all of the other previous jobs that he had been in. Figuring his next move Getting fired was entirely unexpected for Christopher, but with a family to take care of, he had to bounce back soon. Christopher had always had this burning desire to write and coach just lying underneath the surface. He had treated them as hobbies for so long and just doing it a little bit of on the side. Now that Christopher had time on his hands, he started to build up a little bit more, and with time he turned it into a fulltime venture. Christopher admits that his poor performance in this lifetime job opportunity remains his worst investment ever; however, he’s thankful that it happened because he mustered the courage to kick the fear of venturing out entrepreneurially in the butt. Lessons learned Adversity is your best friend Don’t fear pain and failure. With every adversity, there’s the opportunity or the equivalent seed of an advantage. Learn to see opportunities within your adversities, and you will thrive. Developing emotional intelligence Life will always have its shortcomings. By developing emotional intelligence, you will be able to turn every weakness into a win. Without emotional intelligence, you will always let pain, failure, loss, and other adversities hold you back. Be proactive Start taking the initiative to go after the things that you have the skills for, but have previously been too afraid to do. Your success depends on the actions you take today. Plans are nothing; planning is everything Have a plan in life and take action to turn those plans into reality because plans are nothing planning is everything. Know that plans will change, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan. Move from thinking to doing Make all of these things that you’ve always believed that you can do actionable. You need to move from just thinking and talking about these things and start doing them. Muster the courage to start putting your ideas out there, and you may just surprise yourself. Andrew’s takeaways It gets hard before it gets easy Sometimes we just have to hit rock bottom to become our best versions. It has to get hard enough and painful enough for you to decide that you’ll do something different. Our adversities make us who we are It is our adversities, our struggles, our mistakes, and our losses that spur us to new opportunities. Actionable advice First, listen to your heart about what you truly want to do. Second, don’t live in the past; be willing to adapt. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Christopher’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to be a great dad. The couple just welcomed a newborn child into the world. From a professional standpoint, Christopher plans to continue building his coaching business and working with people that he deeply admires in a variety of industries. He also has some ideas for a third book coming up and has started laying the foundation for that. Parting words   “Follow your heart and intuition. Mix this with a plan that’s coupled with the talents, skills, and experiences that you have. Then just go for it.” Christopher Connors   Connect with Christopher Connors LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Blog Website Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

“We make decisions, build relationships, and communicate based on how we feel about things emotionally.” In season 26 episode 7, Christopher D. Connors joins the show.  He is the author of Emotional Intelligence For the Modern Leader. During the show we cover:  - What is emotional intelligence? - How to develop and improve the skill of emotional intelligence - Why planning is essential  - What basketball coaches are worth emulating from as a leader - Why John Wooden was an excellent example of leadership This show is brought to you by LearnLoft.com.  You can sign up for the Virtual Building the Best Leader Workshop here. Use the code "podcast" to get $25 off.

Whether you are hitting it out of the park or barely getting off the bench, this is the show for you. Webster defines success as, accomplishing an aim or purpose. Setting a goal and hitting a target. But what if you could feel successful in your everyday? Just living and breathing and having that feeling of success. Sounds ominous and over the rainbow but, what if? Would you search a little longer for that feeling? Go a little deeper to experience that on a daily basis? I think we need to redefine successful and look at ourselves in a new light. So, how are you feeling today? Did you wake up on top of the world? The alarm goes off and you popped out of bed, “creator of your own destiny!” Onward and upward. Wouldn’t that be great? First of all to pop out of bed when the alarm goes off, forget all about the destiny stuff for a minute. Are any of us that eager to start the morning? That’s on the to-do, work on popping out of bed.  Or does your morning look a little different? SNOOZE, snooze again, yet again. COFFEE...no talking….more COFFEE. UGH, the list is already a mile long with all the things I failed to accomplish yesterday. How will I ever feel successful when I can’t seem to accomplish anything?!? WOW ok, if your morning looks like that, we need a redefinition STAT!  Let’s start with expectations and potentially, unrealistic ones.  Alexander Pope said: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”  Have you ever wondered why we set our expectations too high?  It’s great to challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone but what do we expect a big payoff every time?  Sometimes the expectations we have for ourselves were actually created by someone else. Your parents expected you to sit up straight, be home early, get good grades, be quiet, clean your room, clean your plate, find a good partner, settle down, have a family, contribute to society, ….already I’m exhausted and those aren’t even my own! What happens when we pile all of ours on top? No wonder life can feel overwhelming and we can’t seem to get anything accomplished.  What if we let go of all the expectations we’ve been drowning in and swim back to shore free from them all? What if we started over and created our own set of expectations specifically for us right now. How would they look?  I expect to get enough sleep to re-energize my body and renew my mind I expect kind words from myself and those around me I expect challenges and will accept the outcome knowing I tried my hardest I expect nothing but what I have to give at that moment I expect to be loved and will start by loving myself If we created our own expectations in this manner the feeling of success would come much easier because we are setting ourselves up for success instead of failure.  Ok, you’ve done it, you‘ve accomplished your goal, you’ve hit your target now what? Why can we do everything right and yet we still don’t feel successful? What’s missing?  The feeling.  When goals are expectations set by someone else or society in general then we don’t have an emotional connection to them and the feeling we are looking for won’t be as strong if even felt at all. We need to feel something for what we are trying to do or we won’t feel anything at all.  Remember the swim back to shore and the re-engineering for expectations? It’s time to do the same before you take aim. Make sure where you are going is where you want to go so when you get there you can experience that feeling.  Life can’t just be one drudge after another always moving the carrot further away. Sometimes you are sprinting, sometimes walking, sometimes you are on your hands and knees crawling.  Are you waiting for retirement before the fun begins? Did you buy into the concept of working your entire life, scrimping and saving so that you could do whatever you wanted to do?  Is that success? My visual of that is dragging my beat up and broken self across some fictitious finish line only to collapse on the other side. What if…..you could have successful events and mini celebrations along the way? What if you could retire while you’re still working for what you want.  Christopher D. Connors from Medium says it may actually improve our lives. Love what you do. Live for what you do. Pour your heart, soul and all you’ve got into it. But for goodness sake, celebrate yourself when it’s merited and deserved. But by all means, celebrate what you’ve accomplished. Don’t get self-conscious. Don’t get into the whole false-humility thing. Celebrate yourself when you’ve done something great. CHALLENGE: Celebrate YOU. Not for all your goals accomplished but for the fact that you are here, giving it all you got! Redefine success and find gratitude in the journey, not just the destination. I Know YOU Can Do It!