Emotional Intelligence

During our last class we discussed the topic of emotional intelligence, which most of the class seemed to really enjoy, including myself.  We started off by taking a quiz that rates an individual on different traits related to emotional intelligence and I scored very well on the emotional self control but fairly low on empathy. Having high emotional self control means that I'm able to control my emotions very well, which includes scenarios when temptations are thrown my way. On the other hand, having low empathy means that I have a hard time sharing emotions with another individual or knowing how that individual feels based on the feelings their expressing. Personally, I believe this was more revolved around the fact that I tend to be to laid back and sometimes have difficulty expressing emotions with other people. Overall, I thought this quiz was very effective in calculating the strengths and weaknesses of individual's emotional intelligence.

The second part of the class was intriguing because the group presenting had us do a charades activity which had eight different people acting out different emotions with the rest of the class guessing what their trying to express. Some of the emotions, like happiness and sadness, were easy to distinguish because the feeling is common in every single individual. Emotions such as stressed out and confidence were harder to distinguish because different people show different signs when their experiencing these feelings. I thought this exercise fit the overall presentation really well because it represented that emotional intelligence is key in the work force and future managers need to be able to read peoples emotions based on the signs their showing. Also I thought this exercise showed how people judge each other all the time depending on the emotions and feelings their expressing. This relates directly to me because I had an interview with the New Hampshire Hospital Association and they probably judged me within seconds depending on how I presented myself and the emotions I showed.

A big bulk of the rest of the class was focused on a TED talk talking about emotional intelligence in the workforce. One of the biggest statements that I took out of this video was the fact that the presenter,  Brene Brown, said that vulnerability could be a strength of an individual in the workforce rather than a downfall. At first, I was skeptical about this being true bus as she continued through the lecture I started to believe her more and more. Every single person on the earth hates to feel vulnerable, but these types of situations really makes an individual learn from the experience and improve on it. Also, one of my classmates shared an interesting statement that one of her professors had made in the past and it stated that individuals that are scared to feel vulnerable usually don't want to ruin their pride and reputation. I believe this is spot on and I had never thought of it that way which really made me see stressful situations in a different way. The biggest takeaway from this video was that vulnerability will make an individual grow in positive ways by giving them confidence and takeaway skills that will help them improve down the road.

Overall, I thought this was an excellent presentation that really integrated the class and allowed everyone to participate. One of the biggest factors I learned was that individuals judge each other every day depending on the emotions and body language they are witnessing. Also, being put in stressful situations is really good for an individual, especially me, because it allows them to improve on their skills in the workforce. This topic was really interesting because I related extensively to most of the topics that were discussed.