JuntoBlog

Humans are social creatures. Research has concluded that strong social bonds contribute to a longer life. And most of us work in teams, for teams, and with teams. Yet when it comes to learning, we rarely do it together. We listen to podcasts, read books, attend seminars, and reflect mostly on our own.

In all of the work we do on emotional intelligence and leadership, perhaps nothing draws more attention, response, and delight as the Junto Emotion Wheel. 

I've been learning, practicing, and speaking about emotional intelligence for about 10 years. But it wasn't until six months ago that I finally discovered how best to describe the concept, and the feedback I received only reinforced that discovery.

One of my favorite songs in recent years is "Turn It Around" by the band Lucius. As much as I've loved listening to it, I never bothered to read the lyrics until just a couple weeks ago. And while I know the two women behind the band intended to tell a different story, I couldn't help but draw parallels to our work at Junto, and to entrepreneurs, in general. Here are the lyrics.

In recent weeks, many of us created the time for or found ourselves doing some reflecting. We took stock of what we accomplished last year, what we would have done differently, and why. We also probably thought about what we want to accomplish in the new year, and what it's going to take.

As the years go by, I have more conversations about vision, mission, and core values statements (VMV).

I recently read this wonderful article by Parker Palmer that is actually a prelude to his book, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. The content of the article and the title of the book struck me as profoundly relevant, not only to our lives but also our companies.

I was inspired to write this post after reading an article yesterday by Gallup called "The No. 1 Employee Benefit That No One's Talking About." Here's an excerpt that summarizes the piece:

On Monday morning, Taylor McPartland, our Managing Director in Los Angeles, received the following email from one of the Apprentices in our JuntoLA program.

We are thrilled to announce that, in the past two weeks, seven new growth-stage companies have begun their Apprenticeship program at The Junto Institute.