“Gavin now recognises that it takes emotional intelligence as well as technical driving skills to be a responsible driver.”

• How would you rate your driving skills?
• How often do you get angry and impatient with other drivers?
• Does your drive to work affect your mood for the day?

 Gavin is an experienced technical and functional driver with 35 years experience driving for the army’s paramedic team and as a general paramedic driver thereafter. Gavin has driven people through medical emergencies and hostile environments.

Gavin’s message to other male drivers out there is to “put your ego in your pocket and do the assessment – it’s life changing”.

After reluctantly taking the Driver Assess profile test, Gavin reconsidered the type of skills and characteristics that he thought defined a good driver.

• The assessment highlighted his technical competence but he was surprised at his high score in road rage.
• Gavin’s initial reaction to his results was complete denial – he got angry and tossed the test aside.
• After taking the test Gavin became a bit more conscious of his reactions in the driver’s seat and decided to look at his Driver Assess report again.
• Thereafter, every time Gavin got into the car he found his awareness being drawn to his unfavourable driving patterns and started to implement new habits to combat these.
• Re-setting his speedometer to just below the speed limit is one of the ways in which Gavin has chosen to correct his old reactive habits of driving faster due to emotional triggers on the road.

Gavin now recognises that it takes emotional intelligence as well as technical driving skills to be a responsible driver.

• Gavin’s increased awareness of his own emotional intelligence has had a positive influence in his current work which involves negotiating with trade unions on a daily basis.
• He is able to approach these situations with a win/win mentality rather than his previous win/lose strategy.
• His new approach is more relational, collaborative and constructive.
• Starting meetings with the right mindset is easier when one arrives at the venue in a calm, collected state, which can be achieved through conscious, non-reactive driving on the way there.
• Each time we get into the car we have an opportunity to practice responding to other drivers and traffic in a favourable way, in turn exercising that neural muscle for other areas of life.

Resources:

To take the Driver Assess profiler test and receive your personalised report, go to the website:www.driverassesslive.com   

Download the podcast here (right click and chose save)