I’m in a group called “Signet”. We want to be challenged in our leadership roles. The first book we’re studying is Relational Intelligence. Here is the 1st Chapter:

I chuckled as the author told of a dating story and his deep desire to connect with her, but didn’t know how. He said the wrong thing at the wrong time and blew it. The relationship ended. I suspect we all can relate and tell our own stories, at least I could.
The author spent the 1st chapter advertising the need to have Relational Intelligence. He posed this question: “What if cultivating smarter relationships became a more integral part of how we approach leading others?” “Relationships have a direct correlation to the quality of our lives,” a statement from the author.
Although I didn’t completely agree with the author in an illustration he gave, I do see the need to be smarter with relationships. Here’s his illustration: When he got out of college he searched for a job that he could established a relational connection with his boss. He gave up his first opportunity for a different position, in which he did relationally connect with his boss. I suppose that is idealistic but I’m not sure it’s realistic. I looked back on my life and there were bosses I couldn’t connect to but I felt God wanted me in that place for my spiritual development.
Relationships are the virus of influence. I like how the author used the word virus in a good spread of influence. I have the potential to infect people, either in a positive or negative way. I was challenged to have good spiritual health because viruses spread out.
I appreciated the last part of this chapter. The author introduced a tool to measure relational quotient or as he refers to it: RQ
Web site to measure RQ: http://relationalintelligence.info/
My Score:
RQ Score: 76

Your Normalized RQ Score represents your relational intelligence measured on a scale from 1 to 100. This number is an absolute rating and has no correlation to the general population.

What does my score mean?

0 to 60 – Below Average
60 to 75 – Average
75 to 100 – Above Average
My greatest area was self awareness

After going through this book I will take this again and find out if and how much I’ve improved.