Social emotional intelligence
What is social and emotional intelligence training? It's a process that gives people a way to understand and manage their emotions, achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Conventional methods usually teach five core skills like self-awareness and self-regulation.
I use a groundbreaking approach which simplifies past models. It encourages people to connect their feelings to their needs - a process that yields deeper and more lasting results. And it also awakens learners to a sixth core skill called interdependence which underpins collaboration in any setting.
At home...
The importance of developing social and emotional skills at home cannot be overstated.
These skills underlie healthy relationships between parents, children and siblings. They are the single greatest contributor to effective parenting which calls for open communication, mutual respect and deep connection.
Improving social emotional intelligence skills helps parents better model and share the right strategies and tools with their children.
In turn, these skills help children develop a healthy sense of themselves, generate confidence and decrease feelings of anxiety. Social and emotional skills also prepare children to understand and navigate the complexities of the outside world – including the online world.
At work...
The World Economic Forum ranks emotional intelligence as 8th in its list of the top 10 skills needed in 2022. Social emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance yet...even more than IQ. And emotional intelligence is correlated to top performers and earners.
At the same time, the strain of work continues to increase. Technological, organizational and professional shifts have created workplaces teeming with new stressors that often leave people feeling inadequate and overwhelmed.
Employees are asked to be more autonomous, resilient, collaborative and creative. Managers are told to be more self-aware, calm, compassionate and courageous. Countless programs exist to teach these competencies but most fail to address the social and emotional lives of people.
Why does this matter? It matters because if employees and managers are to authentically integrate any of these skills, they need to connect to, and use their social and emotional talents.