Up side down and round about

Inside Out didn't really grab me although I know it has wowed others. And trust me: I love Pixar movies... but this one kind of lost me. I have been struggling to understand why. Partly, I felt duped by the trailer such that the inner dialogue between mother, father and daughter only happened once in the movie but figures large in the trailer.

Partly, it was the whole candy cane landscape of the girl's mind that became increasingly convoluted as the narrative also disappeared up its own cortex. The story is not that complex and it has a strong and important theme about the value of all emotions (not just just the joyful ones). But what lost me was a fair degree of sub text sexism that they just didn't have to use... Frustrating, because I really wanted to like it. Maybe this movie has really been made for children, although I didn't hear much laughing and giggling from the young audience that surrounded me...

Emotional intelligence (or quotient) is what good managers are meant to have: an ability to understand their own emotions, appreciate the emotions of others and exercise leadership that is mindful of the impact of emotions on day to day (business) life. As with most leadership theories, EQ has its adherents and detractors.

For me one of the key questions is whether a leader who doesn't have very much emotional intelligence can develop it to a level where it becomes helpful to them and those that they lead. The answer appears to be a cautious yes, but only under certain conditions.

How are you developing your EQ?

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This is the Blog 107 in my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.