Recently in Relationships Category

Today I came across a new word -- a Chinese word at that -- twice within a couple of hours. What serendipity!

When the universe talks to me in this way, I listen. (Could it be I have guanxi with the universe?)

Translated literally, guanxi (pronounced gwan-she) means "relationship building"; in practice, it means carefully cultivated clout, a culturally calibrated measure of respect, influence, and honor. It is a personal as well as political form of capital.

Hmmm. Isn't that EQ?

This makes me wonder how EQ fits into global business, specifically with China. China is the next big market -- China has more teenangers than America has adults!

So, what can we learn about guanxi and how can that help us understand how to do business nationally and internationally?

This article talks the importance of management style in political appointees:

"... the White House vetting process for political appointees may well now expand to also cover a candidate's management style. Just as potential high-level federal appointees have been forced to consider whether their nannies are in the country legally since the nominations of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were derailed during the 1990s, future nominees may have to ask themselves how they have treated subordinates..."

Finally, a real consequence to bullying to get your way!

You see, high EQ is about relating well with others. And at all levels of management, job function, intelligence, and motivation. The article points out that:

"Deborah Seltzer, a senior vice president in the Atlanta office of Boyden Global Executive Search based in New York, said more than half of her corporate clients now routinely check with administrative staff on how prospective senior executives treated them while making travel arrangements for job interviews. Some companies even ask the limousine drivers who pick up job candidates at the airport to report back on how they were treated."

High EQ sounds so complex sometimes, but after all, it's just treating others with a certain amount of social etiquette. But I guess it's hard when we've been socialized to brown-nose up and peck down.