On Thursday 25th of June, Christine Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Management at Webster University, and co-founder and Director of Vivace, held a talk about Emotional Intelligence.
She shared her knowledge about how our emotions and intuitions can help us to get in touch with ourselves, to sort out problems and make better use of our emotional energy.
Emotional Intelligence
Our IQ contributes to less than 5% of our professional and personal success, whereas our Emotional Intelligence (EQ) covers almost every aspect of our personal and professional life.
Daniel Goleman’s Five Basic Skills
Christine presented the five basic skills our EQ includes and showed us strategies for building them (cfr. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, Why it can matter more than IQ, Bantam, 1996).
The first skill is self-awareness. The more self-aware we are, the better we know our emotions, recognize and understand our moods and drives, and their effect on others. The very positive side effect from being self-aware is that we don’t take everything so seriously and develop a self-deprecating sense of humor.
The second skill is emotional self-regulation, which consists in the ability to control and redirect disruptive impulses and moods. “People who can regulate their own emotions can take the responsibility for them and don’t hold others responsible for their own moods”. – An interesting fact is that, in order to gain a better self-regulation, one needs to learn from own experience and find a way to manage emotions in a constructive way. Even anger or rage are not feelings that need to be repressed because they can have a positive effect: “Let’s only think about the effect rage can have on our productivity…!”
The third skill, self motivation, is our inner drive that helps us achieve our goals and the optimism we have “even in the face of failure”, which helps us being “more committed” to our goals.
The fourth skill, empathy, or the ability to sincerely understand the emotions of others, enables us to treat people according to their emotional reactions. Empathy is a crucial skill – especially when working cross-culturally, and in the service to client and customers sector.
Finally, our social skills, our ability to manage relationships, build networks, find a common ground, makes us great leaders and makes our messages more believable. – Being part of a great network surely helps us with honing our Emotional Skills.
Go Abroad, Well Prepared
Our guest, Sabine van Egeraat from Outspoken Communication, presented the SIB (Starters of International Business) Go Abroad, Well Prepared vouchers, a subsidy consisting in €2400 in hours of consultancy for small and medium companies who want to grow and explore their international potential, offered by the Dutch Government.
What the government gets out of this? “Healthy entrepreneurs, a healthy financial climate and possibly more income and jobs due to more successful companies”.
How to apply for the voucher
The procedure consists in getting in touch with Sabine, submitting her your idea, finding a clear vision & mission and a strategy, and putting it all on paper. – It will then take 3 weeks to get the voucher granted. During these 3 weeks you will need to finish your plan and taylor it to your needs and company.
The Government allots 600 vouchers in total, but only 100 are left. Please get in touch with Sabine and make sure to ensure yours! – You may even want to apply now and start being active after the summer holidays.
You can find the SIB brochure here, and you make sure you are eligible here.
Featured Member: Yolande Jimenez-Koekenbier
Our featured member this month was Yolande Jimenez-Koekenbier who promoted her Art in Colour collecton: a beautiful variety of jewellery in different styles, silk and felt shawls and unique bags.
Yolande offers regular workshops in silk painting, wool felting and acrylic painting in her studio in Den Hoorn (near Delft).
Appreciations
Thank you Christine for your inspiring talk, Sandra for informing us about a fantastic opportunity to move our businesses to international level and Yolande for brightening up the evening with your beautiful collection!
The next WBII meeting will take place on August the 27th.
Text credit: Ute Limacher-Riebold
Photo credit: Myra Colis (You can view the rest of the photos taken HERE.)
To those who missed it, here’s a copy of Christine’s presentation on emotional intelligence: