Many years ago, during my tenure at the University of California, Santa Barbara; I had the unique opportunity to become closely acquainted with some very influential figures in my life. My junior year of college, I worked as an intern with Relly Nadler who was a local and national executive coach and specialist in Emotional Intelligence Training. Relly was major influence and force in setting me on the path that eventually lead to starting my own consulting and coaching firm Creative Development Life Consultancy. It was while working with Relly, watching his approach, and seeing his success that I became convinced of the power that comes from training individuals in emotional intelligence personal excellence. I observed managers become leaders, underperforming employees become invaluable teammates, and I watched individuals achieve their fullest and greatest potential. All based on a few assessments and a lot of focused training. One word seemed best to describe the process that these professionals were undergoing: powerful.

As I saw the growth that many professionals were experiencing as they were being trained by Relly or one of his coaches, I began to think about how useful this training would have been for me at the start of college (rather than being exposed to it my junior year via my internship). I started looking around for programs that specialize in giving executive coaching to people who were not executives; people who were beginning their lives/careers/interests…I was surprised to find that such a program was not readily available. There were plenty of “life coaches” who would work on whatever I needed, such as goal setting or working out personal issues; but nothing specialized or directed towards training individuals towards emotional intelligence and personal excellence resulting in a high degree of personal and professional success. This seemed spectacularly strange to me. It is during the period of time from the beginning of college up to the beginning of a career that people are the most open to positive change and influence. We begin to shape our beliefs around what it is that we think we can and can’t do. If done correctly, it is during this time that we begin to understand and even realize our potential. We are the most open to learning skills that will make us effective and successful, that will change our habits in a way that will benefit us immensely. And we can obtain these skills early in our careers, making us prime for leadership and success while our professors, bosses, and coworkers are beginning to form an opinion about us.

 

So this begs the question: why isn’t there something concrete and specific as professional training for people when it is most useful; at the start of our professional careers instead of half way through it? Why are we required to approach our professional lives as well as the remainder of our long existence on this earth with an unfocused and ineffective approach before we are finally offered something that will shape and change our careers and lives in a profoundly positive way?

 

The first answer that came to my mind was money; this was expensive training that was typically only affordable to large corporations or individuals who make a substantial amount of money. Companies afford this training because the return is immediate and immense. Individual professionals who pay for this type of training pay out of pocket because it typically yields instant success in their professional endeavors. Yet this training is denied to individuals at the start of their career because of resources. I argue that this is only a mindset. This training does not need to be expensive, and furthermore, when done correctly, at the right moment of time can be monumentally effective with greater returns over time than the alternative which is getting it later in life as an already seasoned professional.

I have designed my coaching approach to meet the need of having this sort of training at the start of your career (or college experience). After more than a decade of working as a teacher, coach, guidance counselor and therapist, and after exhaustive research and practice, I came to the conclusion that emotional intelligence is one of the most effective approaches to developing young individuals, and it is best taught when practicing other principles; such as value definition, clarifying what one wants in life, setting goals that are in harmony with our values and interests, and basic communication training. These are each essential principles to learn for success. When working on these principles (or “elements” as we refer to them) we learn self-insight, which is a necessary component of emotional intelligence; as well as how to manage ourselves and others. Working on all of these elements is the practice of emotional intelligence, and, as we practice, our ability grows and consequently so does our ability to succeed and become who we were meant to be.

So consider the possibility of making an investment in yourself and taking the time to really get your life started on the right foot. Be fearless in your avid pursuit of self-knowledge, and self-insight. Research our site; look at our available coaching and webinar programs; or perhaps take one of our industry standard assessments to begin the process of self-insight and consequently self-growth.