Review of Emotalerting: The Art of Managing the Moment

My latest project is trying to clear the backlog of books on my Kindle. I was trying to work out why this book was on my kindle when I realised that you can see what orders you have made and the price you paid for it. I purchased (?) this book for nothing in January 2015. Obviously it was a promotion.

The author describes himself as Spiritual Formation Pastor and Emotional Intelligence Coach. He received a Doctor of Ministry by writing a thesis on how EQ can aid spiritual formation and (while this is a guess) one would think the thesis finally produced in 2013 is the basis of the book. I confess this is the first time I had heard of this degree.

The book is not long (151 pages) and contains 10 chapters. The first four chapters are a standard introduction to the topic of emotional intelligence covering definitions, the limbic brain, neurophysiology, Goleman’s self and social mastery, etc. He does introduce the reader to Emotalerts which are emotional triggers that get alerted by stimuli happening around us. If the emotion overwhelms our behaviour it is a hijack; if we manage to control the emotion it is an emotalert.

In Chapter five Carlyle Naylor tells his life story. Dostoyevsky would have loved it. Multiple stepfathers, estrangement with his mother, murder of one ex-stepfather by another, thrown out of his home before leaving high school because he was too much a do-gooder. Writing his story down must have been a cathartic experience for the author.

The next five chapters are then Naylor’s attempt to improve the Emotional Intelligence model. He introduces various concepts such as Heart intelligence (which is a form of Spiritual Intelligence) and the Impulsive, Reflective and Ethical Human Wills. This tripartite division reminded me of Freud’s id, ego and super-ego. He then lists off 9 emotalerts that are within all of us. Among them for example are impulsively jumping to conclusions on limited evidence and automatically believing the best in people. I must confess that I am an Occam's razor sort of guy and hold to the principle that "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." I don’t like the theories of multiple intelligences.

Also a number of the emotalerts really appeared to me what you would derive from a combination of education, experience and common sense. But then I am now 70, have fortunate to been educated at Cambridge and the London Business School and 25 years of venture capital have given me unbelievable insights into human behaviour. On the other hand Naylor does wear his heart on his sleeve, his writing is honest and a young person reading this book would pick up some useful tips about life.

Review of Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being by Brian R. Little

About once a year you read a book that both confirms your beliefs and introduces you to new ways of thinking.  Me, Myself, and Us is the book for 2015.  It is a pleasure to read a book that is clearly written and humorous yet full of insights.  Thankfully it gives neuroplasticity a miss and tries to explain how you can have a happy life without morphing into a sermon on new-age spirituality.  Instead Little takes as his mantra that happiness is derived by understanding who we are and what we do and then spends 288 pages explaining how it can be achieved.

The first insight by Little is that there are three sources of our personality traits:

1.      Biogenic referring to the aspects of our personality sourced genetically. (50%)

2.      Sociogenic, those aspects learned from social and cultural factors (25%), and

3.      Idogenic, referring to the aspects of our personality best accounted for by (idiosyncratic) individual factors such as personal values, goals, projects and commitments. (25%)

Personally I think the London Twins study makes the percentages more like 66%-17%-17% but it still is a very useful model.

With regard to Biogenic factors Little begins by dumping on Myers-Briggs saying the test lacks both reliability and validity.  In addition he makes the point that it is not Type that counts in personality but traits.  I must confess as someone who regards MBTI as a waste of time I enjoyed this section.  Instead Little recommends the reader adopt the Big Five model.  The five-factor model (FFM) indentifies 5 core traits:

1.      openness to creativity

2.      conscientiousness

3.      extraversion

4.      agreeableness

5.      neuroticism

OCEAN is often used as a mnemonic to remember the traits.  Each trait is distributed normally in the population.  In other words 67% of the population fall within plus or minus 1 standard devation and have an average level of the trait.  So one sixth of the population would be classified as Extravert, one sixth as Introverts, and two-thirds as Ambiverts.  The MBTI say you are either an Extravert or Introvert.

Personally I prefer the Humm-Wadsworth with its seven factors to the FFM; however the five most common factors in the Humm are identical to the FFM.

Little then goes on to both list a number of secondary factors and provide for each factor a simple questionnaire.  Unfortunately he then slips into the same error as the MBTI by saying you are at one end of the spectrum or the other.  For example Self Monitoring refers to the individual's trait sensitivity and responsiveness to social factors. High Self Monitors are highly responsive to needs and perspectives of others and are apt to avoid conflict at all costs. Low Self Monitors stick to their own beliefs and attitudes which can make them unconscious and boorish but they are not afraid of healthy conflict.  The reality is that two-thirds of us are clustered around the mean.

Similarly with locus of control which refers to the extent to which individuals believe are in control of the events affecting them. A person’s locus is either internal (the person believes they are primarily in control of their life course) or external (meaning they believe their life course is primarily controlled by external factors which they cannot influence).  Again two-thirds of us cluster around the mean.

However the part of the book I found really illuminating is when Little described the idojenic contribution to our behaviour.  Little uses himself as an example.  He describes as an introvert who when he is lecturing projects himself as an pseudo=extrovert.  I myself have had the same experience.  People are often surprised to hear according to the MBTI that I am an introvert. But I am. I have simply adapted my personality to meet the demands of the situation. People do behave "out of character" or counter to their typical disposition.

Little makes great play about how important it is for your own happiness to be doing projects that are congruent with your genetic traits.  According to Little most of us have up to 15 projects on the go.  He refers to a website 43.com which had been operating since 2005 and collects list of projects from people.  Top of the list is losing weight followed by going to write a book.  Unfortunately for Little the website closed down in March 2015.  Nevertheless his book is first class and well worth purchasing.

You always see a red tie

On 18 May Australian Stockbroker BBY was placed into voluntary administration.  The picture below appeared in many of the newspapers

The man wearing the red tie is the former executive chairman of BBY securities, Glen Rosewall, the son of Australian tennis great, Ken Rosewall.  Mr Rosewall said: "I put my heart and soul into BBY for 11 years and I'm devastated by what's happened."

Stockbrokers and investment bankers to succeed need a lot of Hustler Component.  A person with a ‘strong H’ will have a drive for Material Success. This means enjoying money and the things that money will buy. The H is quick, opportunistic, shrewd, entrepreneurial, and charming. This person has a ‘nose’ for a deal and they’ll quickly work out if you can help them do the deal or not. They’re also short-term – they want results now, or very soon. Promising an H a significant financial reward next year will probably not interest them. They are very loyal to their own families and team. But mostly they’re loyal to themselves and they will work hard to make sure they get what they believe they’re entitled to.

I will never forget a morning presentation I was asked to give shortly after I joined the Bankers Trust Australia in 1981.  It was on the Humm-Wadsworth profiling system and about 60 people attended.  At that time there were three silos in the bank. 

The first silo comprised the fund managers.  Preservation of capital and the ability to read the copious reports supplied by over 100 stockbroking firms dominated their life and most of their personalities had very strong Doublechecker and Engineer components.  About 20 of them came to the talk.

In the second silo were the Corporate Financiers. They spend most of their time with company CEOs and government officials working out mergers and acquisitions or privatisations.  They were the corporate salespeople with lots of competitive pitches and presentations.  About 15 came to the talk.  They were dominated by the Politician component.

Finally in the third silo were the money market dealers who dealt with various money market instruments such as bank bills, CDs and bonds.  Their day was dominated by buying and selling orders and constantly hustling their clients.  As an aside I said that one way you recognise Hustlers was that they always wore red ties.  A murmur slid into laughter into uproar as the whole audience realised that every one of the 35 money market people attending the talk was wearing a red tie.  The talk became famous in BT as the “Red Tie” talk and my place in the organisation was assured.

Some wonderful comments have emerged about BBY since the administration.

It turns out BBY had invested in Firestone Energy, a dual listed Australian and South African coalmine developer, that in 2013 was acquired by dual listed South African miner Waterberg Coal.  BBY’s holding in Firestone at the current share price of half a cent is worth around $3m, the company has been unable to trade since March after Standard Bank called in a loan ­facility worth $35m due on April 9 this year.  Nevertheless BBY was claiming the investment was a liquid asset to the ASX.  Stretching legal definitions is typical of the Hustler.

Other options traders said BBY had grown rapidly because it charged the least of any of the brokers. Rates were set at just one basis point (0.01 of one per cent) per trade. Hustlers are notorious for buying on a discount, and equally notorious when selling to alway sell with a discount.
“BBY is known as the Hedge Fund Hotel because of all the micro hedge funds who rent space in the BBY office,’’ said one major fund manager.  Micro hedge fund managers are infamous traders and birds of a feather flock together.
One of the unfortunate changes in business life is that more and more men are not wearing ties.  They were such a great window into the temperament of a male.