Signs You’re a Highly Sensitive Person

Sensitive people get a bad rap. Research suggests that genes are responsible for the 15–20% of people who qualify as “highly sensitive.” Psychologist Elain Aron has studied this phenomenon extensively, and using MRI scans of highly sensitive people’s brains, she’s found that they experience sounds, feelings, and even the presence of other people much more intensely than the average person.
Sensitivity and Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. The good news is that highly sensitive people aren’t more or less emotionally intelligent than others.

Highly sensitive people experience things more intensely. Their strong emotions are easier to identify (and potentially use to their benefit) than the average person. This also helps them to communicate effectively because they don’t just hear the words coming out of other people’s mouths, but they also catch on to subtleties in gesture and tone.

There are trade-offs, however, as strong emotions that are left unchecked can have disastrous consequences. Highly sensitive people can use EQ to their benefit only once they understand that they are highly sensitive. This awareness ensures they reap the benefits of their heightened emotional awareness while spotting and defeating their negative tendencies.
The Highly Sensitive Person

You’re likely wondering if you or someone you know are highly sensitive. The following are the most common qualities that highly sensitive people possess. See how many apply.

• You think deeply.
• You’re detail-oriented.
• You take longer to reach decisions.
• You’re crushed by bad decisions.
• You’re emotionally reactive.
• You take criticism harshly.
• You work well in teams.
• You have great manners.
• Open offices drive you crazy.

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9 Daily Habits That Will Make You Happier

Happiness is the only true measure of personal success. Making other people happy is the highest expression of success, but it's almost impossible to make others happy if you're not happy yourself.

With that in mind, here are nine small changes that you can make to your daily routine that, if you're like most people, will immediately increase the amount of happiness in your life:

1. Start each day with expectation.
2. Take time to plan and prioritize.
3. Give a gift to everyone you meet.
4. Deflect partisan conversations.
5. Assume people have good intentions.
6. Eat high quality food slowly.
7. Let go of your results.
8. Turn off "background" TV.
9. End each day with gratitude.

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Tech Luminaries We Lost in 2011

It's been a rough year for the IT industry. The death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in October grabbed international headlines. But we also lost other major figures from almost every area of technology, including Xerox PARC founder Jacob E. Goldman, who died in late December. Have a look at some of the people who made a big difference and whom we lost in this post.

Dennis M. Ritchie -- Godfather of Unix, Father of C
Robert Morris -- A Knack for Encryption
John McCarthy -- Intelligence, Artificial and Otherwise
Ken Olsen -- The Digital Man
Paul Baran -- Packet Thinker
Jean Bartik -- Last of the First Programmers
Jack Keil Wolf -- Disk Drivin' Man
Julius Blank -- Silicon Machinist
Robert Galvin -- No More Mobile Monopoly
Gerald A. Lawson -- Cartridge Creator
George Devol -- The Man With the Robot Arm
Lee Davenport -- Radar Maker
Wilson Greatbatch -- Heartbeat of the Century

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What drives managers at work

Most Indian managers prefer to conform to the set agenda and also like to be given clear goals; they are also less inclined than their counterparts in countries such as France to exercise ‘independence' at work, according to Pearson, which is introducing its personality test SOSIE in the Indian market. The test, based on the work of psychologist Leonard Gordon, maps personality traits and values, and by linking the two arrives at factors affecting motivation in the workplace.

SOSIE tracks eight traits and 12 values, and is customised for each country, and for each level of employee. It comprises a set of 98 customised questions with choices. The personality traits mapped are: Ascendancy, Responsibility, Stress Tolerance, Sociability, Cautiousness, Original Thinking, Personal Relations and Vigour. Values are split as — Interpersonal: Support, Conformity, Recognition, Independence, Benevolence and Leadership; and Personal: Practical, Achievement, Variety, Decisiveness, Orderliness and Goal Orientation.

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