“The Basoga have a saying that if a person has bigger genitals than yours, do not go sulking that it is a hydrocele.

Emotional intelligence is the competency of understanding and mastering your own emotions and recognizing the emotions of others in a way that:

• Instills Confidence
• Motivates
• Inspires

Emotional intelligence is also the competency of understanding and mastering your own emotions and recognizing the emotions of others in a way that enhances group effectiveness. Toxic, flippant, defiant attitudes make your skull impervious to sense and destroy the team.

Mentors have a wealth of experience about what constitutes a distinctive performance and when they talk to you about what is needed, do not even for one-minute think they are overbearing. It is their turf!

Young people need to be patient and open to learning. If you keep leaving every job just because people are telling your lazy-ass to measure up, you will end up an extremely mediocre person.

You also have to learn to reduce negativity, toxic rumor-mongering and hen-pecking your colleagues.”

This “Lesson for success #06: Emotional Intelligence and Maturity” is republished with permission from the original author:

“I have been working with relatively young people (below 40 years of age) and in my interactions with them, I have found 10 skills that prevent many of them from becoming a beacon of professionalism. Skills not formally taught in school yet so vital. Skills that would transform a young professional into a ‘hot cake’ for inclusion in successful enterprises.”

Dr. William Roy Mayega, a Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, a the School of Public Health Makerere University Kampala

Links to Dr. Mayega’s other nine lessons:

• #01: Pay Attention to Detail
• #02: Systems Thinking
• #03: Reliability & Consistency
• #04: Communication and Presentation
• #05: Creativity
• #07: Focus and Drive
• #08: Patience and Resilience
• #09: Financial Intelligence
• #10: Reverence and Decency

“Building healthy communities” is the overall objective of CPAR Uganda. Our mission is “to engage in educational and scientific activities to stimulate the development, dissemination and widespread application of technologies suitable and adaptable to the social, cultural and economic conditions of developing countries.”