This seminar will be held in Dallas (Irving), TX on September 10-11, 2008
Click here to register.
Class Overview
This two-day leadership intensive provides the information critical to building true leadership skills, including:
The sessions are engaging and interactive while providing practical steps for improving leadership skills. Each participant will have a personal action plan to implement and a partner to maintain accountability. After 21 days, you receive a personal session with the instructor to discuss your success!
About Emotional Intelligence
We have all come to believe that intelligence, or IQ, is an important factor in our success. Amazingly, recent research suggests just the opposite – that intelligence, as measured by one’s IQ, has little to do with success in business. Rather, it is the Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, that accounts for up to 85% of a businessperson’s career success. Think about some of the most successful people you know – they may not have an Ivy League degree, but most likely, they are adept at understanding their own feelings and reading the moods of other people around them. The good news is that, unlike IQ, you can improve your EQ with conscious effort!
“If only we could get this to those who need it most and are the least likely to seek the info.”
Course participant, from the anonymous evaluation form
The leader’s emotional intelligence sets the tone for the rest of the work group. Through recent research, we know that a positive working environment enhances a team’s ability to perform. The leader’s ability to manage their own emotions and recognize the emotions of team members is an important ingredient in the overall effectiveness, productivity and efficiency of the team.
“I thought today's course was outstanding! The subject matter discussed was very applicable.”
Leadership Strategies provides an introduction to the leadership skills that can turn a poorly performing team or department into one that provides bottom-line benefits to the organization. The Leadership Strategies training addresses several major issues that plague workgroups and create chaos for even the most effective leaders. These include poor customer satisfaction, low employee morale and stress in the support center. Additionally, this class addresses the issue of low performing teams and low productivity. After attending this class, you’ll understand why emotional intelligence is a foundation for a highly productive team, and you’ll learn practical skills that help you lead and manage a high performance workforce.
“Great topic – good balance between business and subject.”
This two-day workshop will not only introduce concepts of emotional intelligence, but will also provide participants with practical steps to improve their leadership skills and foster more productive teams. In addition, participants will receive exercises to complete individually, with a partner or with a team, over a period of 30 days.
The training sessions are interactive, fun and engaging. KR Consulting licenses excerpts from Hollywood movies to demonstrate the effects of positive and negative emotional intelligence skills. Viewing movie clips allows participants to analyze concepts presented, discuss the actor’s responses to emotional triggers, and internalize the lessons learned. This is a powerful learning device in the classroom.
“Continue to use the videos. They were very helpful for me to understand the emotions visually.”
This seminar includes a self-assessment of each participant’s EQ rating. KR Consulting uses TalentSmart’s The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, which is composed of twenty-eight questions presented in an online format. The online appraisal includes e-learning modules, the ability to enter action plans and track progress toward goals. Each participant will receive an emailed link to the assessment two weeks prior to the seminar. All participants must complete the appraisal and bring a printed copy of their summary reports to the seminar.
For more information on Business Relationships, please call KR Consulting at 817-577-7030 or complete an information request form by clicking here.
“It was a great class. Kristin was very knowledgeable on information.”
The training includes the following modules:
Day One: Introduction to Emotional Intelligence
Unit One: Emotional Intelligence Concepts
What is emotional intelligence, and why is it so important? A leader must be aware that her emotional maturity affects the group’s mood, which in turn affect’s the group’s productivity. Our current understanding of brain physiology provides fascinating insights into our emotional make-up. It explains why we react quickly to emotional stimulus and how our physical reactions are closely tied to our emotions. In this introduction, we discover why the emotional intelligence of the leader is so important to business success. We also discuss and experience the workings of our brains through discussion and exercises.
“Great that it was not just adaptable to service desks”
Unit Two: First, Know Thyself
Howard Gardner of Harvard University first posited the concept of multiple intelligences. Each human being has different strengths and weaknesses, making each person unique. In order to understand how our emotions work, we need to first understand ourselves. In this module, we discover how the body’s reactions provide clues to the emotions we are feeling. In addition, we learn ways to become more aware of emotions as they happen. We review the results of the EQ assessment that participants completed prior to the seminar.
Unit Three: Self- Management
Once identified, our emotions need to be managed – they cannot rule us if we want to be emotionally intelligent. In this unit, we examine several aspects of self-management, including:
· Restraint and resilience
· The power of a positive attitude
· Tolerating negative emotions and how to handle them
Most self-management techniques are a variation of the “count to ten before speaking” theme. We explore together the best ways to deal immediately with a stressor or emotional trigger, and discover the best ways to deal with the second wave of reaction that sets in over time. Included in this unit is a stress management assessment that helps participants identify the major areas of their work and personal life that might be out of balance.
“Great topic – I'm able to take several of the items mentioned back to my team.”
Unit Four: Social Awareness
Only after some success in identifying and managing our own emotions are we able to move into the area of awareness of other people’s emotions. We examine the open loop aspect of our brains that allows us to share and magnify emotions and moods. The mood of the participant’s workplace is examined in order for the leaders in the seminar to become more aware of how they affect it. We discuss and experience the benefits of using effective listening and empathy to become a more effective leader.
“Enjoyed more of the non-technical discussion.”
Unit Five: Relationship Success
Leading with emotional intelligence does not mean that the leader should never convey anger. We view and discuss movie scenes in which a leader uses anger effectively to focus team members on goals. Because our informal relationships within the workplace contribute to our effectiveness as leaders, we map our working relationships to identify where new connections might be helpful. We close day one with a teamwork exercise that leaves everyone with positive emotions!
Day Two: Advanced Leadership Topics
Unit Six: Conflict Management
Conflict is inherent in any relationship, but it is the wise leader who understands how to manage interpersonal conflict to a positive end. In this learning module, we work with the concepts of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), an approach to conflict management that uses emotional intelligence to achieve resolution. More than just resolving conflicts, NVC provides us with important emotional intelligence tools of empathetic listening, stating our emotions in a way that doesn’t make the other person defensive, understanding the underlying human needs of both parties to the discussion, differentiating observations from judgments (a very important managerial skill), and equipping people to request changed behavior in a way that is a win for both sides.
This module will be highly interactive, with movie clips to demonstrate the skills being discussed and a group role play on a conflict that is relevant to your workplace. We end the module with a discussion on how to apply the concepts learned in our work as managers of people.
“Very informative presentation with good examples.”
Unit Seven: Reframing our Mental Stories for Better Perspective: Stress Management
Stress comes from our internal reaction to an external event. Several people may be the participant in the same particular event (for example, having to announce a lay-off) and can have vastly different reactions. What stresses me may not stress you. This is because of the mental stories we construct in our brains to explain what happened. We each have choices as to how we will tell our mental stories: as a victim, as a hero or as a more neutral party to the event. As leaders in complex organizatoins, stress is a constant in our lives; therefore, it is important to examine the stories we tell ourselves about events.
In this module, we will delve into the brain’s ability to interpret the things that happen around us, which helps us understand why we react the way we do. We will work through techniques of re-framing the event, or telling the story from different points of view, which allows us to gain perspective. Seeing a situation from a different perspective often helps in relieving stress, keeps us from jumping to the worst possible conclusion, and contributes to a calmer workplace.
This module will also cover basics of coaching skills, a needed skill for all leaders as they develop the talent in the workforce.
“Excellent communication skills and great movement around during presentation.”
Unit Eight: Emotionally Intelligent Decision-making
Experts tell us that all decision-making is emotional in nature. Without our emotions to guide us, our brains would be stuck in endless rationalizations of any decision we make. It's our emotions that allow us to make timely decisions. In this important module, we become more aware of the emotional content of our decision-making process and discover ways to leverage this tendency to our advantage. You will complete this module knowing how to make better decisions in less time!
“It was just great - the facilitator was engaged with audience and I was engaged immediately.”
Unit Nine: Accepting What Can Not be Changed
Even if you are Chairman of the Board of your organization, there are situations, events and people that you cannot control or change. All leaders and managers in an organization must deal with policies over which they have no control, unexpected economic events and the vagaries of why people act the way they do. Bottomline, even top-ranking executives must deal with things that are beyond their control. Many times, we regret our powerlessness in a situation, stress out over what should be happening, or regret that we did not take, what we see in retrospect, as the better course of action.
The wise leader will differentiate between what he or she has control over and does not have control over. Emotional intelligence teaches us several methods of letting go of these events, forgiving ourselves and others for the regretful events of the past, and strengthening our emotional intelligence to prepare us for improved performance the next time.
“Thanks!"
Unit Ten: Creating New Habits
Experts agree that it takes 21 days to build a new habit. In this concluding unit, we spend time reviewing the materials presented in class and create personal action plans. Then, each participant is paired with an accountability partner. In partnerships, each participant will work on their action plans. The instructor will check in personally with each participant at the end of 21 days to hear individual success stories.
Kristin Robertson has written extensively on Emotional Intelligence and the Support Center. You might enjoy reading some of the following articles:
Emotional Intelligence and the Support Center: An Introduction
Dealing with Stress with Emotional Intelligence, Part One
Dealing with Stress with Emotional Intelligence, Part Two
Managing the Support Center with Emotional Intelligence
Emotionally Intelligent Customer Service Skills: Managing Yourself
Customer Service from the Heart: The Importance of Empathy
Customer Service Skills: A Non-Response is NOT a Good Response
Patience is a Leadership Virtue
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