8 Behaviours to determine.... Are YOU SMART?

Dr. Bill Lucas of the Talent Foundation understands what it means to be smart in today's complex world. He lists 8 key behaviours that "Make You Smart" however it is crucial to his notion that being smart is situational; behaviour that is effective in one situation could be decidedly ineffective in another. Nothing makes sense without an initial grasp on the circumstances that made up the situation. Being smart, just like leadership and management styles, is definitely situational. Do you demonstrate these behaviours?

1. Knowing how and when to use your intuition


2. Sensing other people's emotions and responding accordingly


3. Extracting meaning from experience


4. Applying expertise gained in one situation advantageously in another


5. Judging when taking risks is likely to be beneficial


6. Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses and playing to them


7. Recognising and channelling your emotions effectively


8. Bouncing back after a setback.

Focus on what you can do, not what you can't do!

Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? We all have some habits we would like to change, sounds easy but consider how often you have been successful? Rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves the question we need to ask is how will you replace the poor habits with good ones? Research on thought suppression (eg "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that tyring to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behaviour - by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get stregthened rather than broken. If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, what will I do instead?