A growing body of research suggests that problem solving and analytical thinking, which is currently part of many people's daily work, may be executed by AI in the future. It has been asserted that this could catalyse a transition from our current 'thinking economy' to a future 'feeling economy'. The study suggests that emotional intelligence and the ability to influence social attitudes and behaviours will be more challenging to replicate via AI. Thus, emotional intelligence may become the primary driver for successfully managing workplace relations and activities.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

There are many definitions of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) yet all are based upon the same core elements which include the ability to be aware of and manage one's own emotions and those of others and to be able to relate to others in effective ways, both personally and professionally, in a wide range of contexts and roles.

Relationships are front and center of workplace performance and emotional intelligence skills are what make effective relationships thrive. We hear many organizations say:

  • Many of the people who work for them lack the motivation to keep learning and improving on the job.

  • A main complaint is that people are not able to work cooperatively with fellow employees.

  • Many entry-level applicants do not have enough self-discipline in their work habits.

  • Huge amounts of money is wasted on professional development programs leading to an unsatisfactory return on investment.

  • People issues are the main workplace obstacle - ability to lead, work in teams, take initiative, manage change, etc.
“ Emotions are at the root of everything we do...
the origin of every act more complicated than a reflex. ”
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the service employees' capacity to understand and control their own emotions, and recognize and manage those of their clients at work. It is the capacity to blend thinking and feeling to make effective choices, which is key to having a successful relationship with yourself and your clients. Emotions drive people and people drive performance. EQ empowers you to harness emotions to create optimal results in today's challenging and demanding service context.

Research has found professionals who are positive, happy and who perceive the best in situations, combined with low levels of anger and negativity, consistently obtain the highest performance levels. This holistic EQ program combines both theory and practice for professional and personal development. By being more emotionally intelligent, the service professionals will more accurately recognize emotions in themselves and others. This data will help them make effective choices and craft effective solutions to the "work puzzles" they face.
 
Emotional Intelligence Can be Learned

EQ competencies include a set of learnable skills of self-awareness, empathy, optimism, self-direction and motivation to manage yourself, your clients and interpersonal relationships. It requires each service employee in the service chain to be fully committed to transform client service and in the process, achieve personal satisfaction in the service they deliver. It includes skills necessary to manage and control oneself and clients in difficult situations. This EQ workshop provides the relevant content, practical tools, and skills to enhance your EQ competencies. This holistic and integrated program combines both theory and practice for professional and personal development.

Social and empathetic growth happens best in well-facilitated groups. The methodology follows Adult Learning Theory, and in particular uses a mixture of experiential (Kolb's learning cycle) and action learning. It allows the participants to gain EQ content knowledge, reflect, analyze, synthesize workplace experience and practice the EQ concepts on a practical way. Throughout the workshop, participants will be asked to engage in various "activities that teach" and affirm their understanding and skills through feedback from learning partners for integration into effective performance.

Our Strategic EQ Partner



To provide a practical and simple way to learn and practice emotional intelligence, Six Seconds Model of EQ-in-Action begins with three important pursuits: to become more aware (noticing what you do), more intentional (doing what you mean), and more purposeful (doing it for a reason i.e. to add value to your clients). These concepts will be discussed in service contexts for application.

 
EQ includes self-awareness,  being able to handle your feelings well, to work with integrity, to stay motivated to work towards your goals even when things go wrong,to have empathy and to know what the other person is feeling. ”
 
“ EQ means using your emotions effectively to achieve goals,develop productive relationships and attain success in the workplace. ”

EQ-ing in Service Excellence

Key Learning Pointers

  • Increase self-awareness of your emotions and how they are projected as well as be sensitized to the projections of your customers

  • Know Yourself is clearly seeing what you feel and do. Emotions are data, and these competencies allow you to accurately collect that information.

  • Avoid an Emotional Hijack - manage your 'stamps' (collected feelings) used to justify ineffective behavior

  • Manage your Hot Buttons - triggers of events, words or a combination of things that create a negative emotional response

  • The Stress Evaluation Profile : key categories - feelings of relationship, feelings of satisfaction, feelings of integrity, feelings of justice, feelings of stimulation, feelings of belonging, self-image management, emotional ease


  • Choose Yourself is doing what you mean to do. Instead of reacting 'on autopilot', these competencies allow you to proactively respond to your customers' needs and expectations.

  • Exercise consequential thinking by consciously choosing your Thoughts-Feelings-Actions to empower yourself and set the standards for our effective patterns of behaviors in customer interactions
  • Navigate emotions : replace the negative voices ('victim, famine, injustice, isn't it awful voices') with positive voices ('good-seeker, creative, gratitude and forgiveness voices')

  • Decide on your choice points in the reaction cycle to deescalate negative emotions

  • Learn about Resilience at Movies - have a wide comfort zone, patience and persistence to make connections with 'difficult' clients


  • Give Yourself is doing it for a reason. These competencies help you put your service 'big picture' into action so you serve on purpose to add value to your customers

  • Build empathetic rapport : being customer-centered and able to see things the way he/she does

  • Listen empathetically to connect without making judgment

  • Take action that reflects empathy : (i) align the intentions and behaviour without gaps of misunderstanding and (ii) give a complete factual and emotional picture of the event

  • Increase your empathy and transfer this authentic and interactive EQ ways to exceed customers' needs and expectations

  • Integrate emotional intelligence into our service work following the process outlined in the EQ Learn Kit will help to guide and heighten learning about these important areas. Sharing of ways to respond to the customers' needs and expectations using the EQ micro-skills will add to the collective body of knowledge within the team.

 

 
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