Tag: Relational Intelligence

“Not Like Me” Assessments

The new www.NotLikeMe.org site includes a place for assessments you can use in your organization, church, or small group. Here are some of the featured assessments:

Free Assessments:

Relational Intelligence by Steve Saccone

If we took a panoramic view of humanity, unfortunately we would discover that human relationships are often reduced to a commodity, as if people were buying, selling and trading them for their own benefit. As human beings, we have the power to change this commodity-based mindset to a relationally intelligent mindset, where people are our highest value and where we interact in a smarter way that ultimately leads to greater influence. We must remember that the way we choose to relate to one another determines the quality of our human experience and reveals what we value most.

Project Implicit (Are you prejudice?)

This assessment, as featured in the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, reveals what we really think about others who are different than we are. “Assess your conscious and unconscious preferences for over 90 different topics ranging from pets to political issues, ethnic groups to sports teams, and entertainers to styles of music. At the same time, you will be assisting psychological research on thoughts and feelings.”

Assessments for Purchase:

Having a better understanding of ourselves can help us know how to serve others more effectively. Here are three excellent options:

Gallup’s StrengthsFinder

Building your life around your strengths is far more rare than you might think. Most people focus on improving their weaknesses rather than harnessing their strengths. We will engage in a conversation involving the identification and harnessing of your strengths, while also learning to manage your weaknesses. The Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment involves 34 top themes (strengths), and after taking this assessment, you will discover your top five. These five themes will provide clarity around how you were uniquely designed, and will help focus your future choices.

To check out more details on the assessment options, go here.

To contribute some assessment options for consideration, email Belinda at belinda@mosaic.org with the details (description of how to take it, description of the results, and explanation on how it fits the idea of loving, serving, and influencing others). All of those whose contributions make the site will be entered to win a free copy of Not Like Me.

What are some of your favorite assessments? What are your results from Gallup StrengthsFinder and how has that helped you?

Free Resources for Small Groups and Church Leaders

www.NotLikeMe.org includes lots of free resources to take your church or your small group through a sermon series or small group experience to discover how to love, serve, and even influence our diverse world. Check out these great articles just posted at the new site:

“Cultivating an Invitational Spirit” by Steve Saccone

“Love Up Close” by April Diaz

“Listening” by Marcus “Goodie” Goodloe

“Friend of Sinners” by Octavio Martinez

“Unconditional” by Stefanie Bohde

“Adapting Life Rhythms for Compassionate Justice” by Charles Lee

Find out how to win a copy of Not Like Me and/or contribute an article, film, graphics, or other resources to the NotLikeMe.org site, go here.

april diaz Charles Lee eric bryant idea camp ideation just one Marcus Goodie Goodloe Mosaic Mosaic Whittier newhope south bay Newsong not like me octavio martinez Relational Intelligence stefanie bohde Steve Saccone www.notlikeme.org

“Cultivating An Invitational Spirit” by Steve Saccone

When it comes to the impact we long to have as human beings, we must be intelligent in how we approach our relationships.

To build and develop true relational influence, we have to be invited into someone’s relational space versus what we sometimes do, which is invade someone’s relational space.

By “relational space,” I mean that invisible dynamic inside of people where they either open themselves to someone else’s input…or resist it. For instance, if someone refuses to allow us into his “relational space,” that means he’ll resist any advice, input, or coaching we offer. We often don’t pay close enough attention to this interpersonal dynamic, and in the process, we break trust, lose credibility, and diminish our capacity to influence.

Think about this dynamic in a different way. Imagine hiring a personal trainer at a local gym to help you get in shape. By hiring him, you give him permission to coach you, offer his advice, and even push you to exercise with greater effort and focus. You are inviting him into your “space.”

On the contrary, imagine seeing a friend at the mall. After saying hello, he begins assessing your physical health, tells you how much you need to exercise, and then commands you to “get down and give him 50 (pushups).” I don’t know about you, but I’d be wondering where the hidden camera was.

When put in these terms, it what a bizarre moment. But enter the world of relationships, and we often ignore this same principle. We offer advice, input, and coaching to people who have not yet invited us into their relational space. To them, our approach may even seem bizarre because we’re trying to impose on them something they’ve never asked us to give them.

Read the rest of Steve’s article at the new NotLikeMe.org site here.

Steve Saccone is author of Relational Intelligence, and a Catalyst at Mosaic in Los Angeles.

To find out how to win a copy of Not Like Me and/or contribute an article, film, graphics, or other resources to the NotLikeMe.org site, go here.

not like me Relational Intelligence Steve Saccone

What Do You Do When You Discover Your Identity?

Having had the opportunity to take assessments dealing with personality (MBTI), strengths (Gallup’s Strengths Finder), relational intelligence, and even an in-depth career assessment (the Birkman Method), the key has always been applying what I’ve discovered. There is real power in discovering your identity.

: “Christ Washing the Feet of St. Peter” by Sadao Watanabe

Once you discover your identity, then what do you do when you know who you are, know what you are here to do, and know where you are going?

In the midst of genuine self-awareness, Jesus chose to serve.

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:3-5).

Have you taken any of these assessments? What did you discover? How have they helped you serve others?

Gallup StrengthsFinder Jesus washing disciples feet MBTI Relational Intelligence sadao watanabe the Birkman Method

A HA! (Free Online Training Day)

In the spirit of The Nines (a series of 9 minute videos in which leaders shared insights into leadership, ministry, and life), Leadership Network now has a A HA!