the growing leader

I'm reading a book now called The Growing Leader: Healthy Essentials for Children's Ministry by Craig Jutila. I like when books make me think straight away. I also like books (and people) who encourage me to think that I don't have to be the smartest, most organized, most creative, most everything to do a good job and to be given talents and gifts from God and actually use them.
I like what he said about having an emotional intelligence. He says, "I'm not smart, just emotionally intelligent."
He writes:

"What is emotional intelligence? This term was coined and championed by Dr. John Mayer and Dr. Peter Salovey, along with colleagues like Dr. David Caruso. I appreciate these guys and their pioneering work because I love the notion that I can be smart in ways that don't necessarily show up on my report card.
These men pointed out that we can be smart in our emotions as well as in our rational thinking. We can excel at understanding our own feelings and the feelings of others. We can be intelligent about managing our emotions and the emotions of others. And all that can add up to our being extremely effective, especially when we're working with people. But we have to know how to use our E.I."

The other thing I liked about what he said in the first few pages of the book was regarding seeking the advice of others. He said, particularly where decision making in concerned, always seek the advic of others when you don't know what to do. Make sure you consult people who have a good track record for decision making. And, you don't necessarily have to take their advice. See, I've always heard people say things like, "They asked for my advice and never even took it!" or "Why do they bother asking me what I think if they're just going to do whatever they want in the end."
He says that after getting some advice from people you trust, there's a difference in getting advice and getting approval. Not everyone is going to agree with what you think. And in the end, it doesn't mean the decision you make will end up being the right one.

I think I'm going to like this book.

Side note: If you haven't read For Men Only, and For Women Only, it's a great read. I think the girls I worked with the summer thought I was a nut case for the For Women Only book, I talked about it all the time. I would recommend reading both. I found when I read For Men Only, it helped me put into words how I feel sometimes and understand why so now I'm better able to communicate my thoughts and feelings.
It was funny because I was telling Des about how women have a million thoughts going on in their heads all the time (sometimes ones they don't even want to think about) and how the book relates it to windows on a computer screen - he got it.