Improving our emotional intelligence can help us:
- Have insight into our emotional triggers
- Identify our emotions and the sources of our feelings
- Reduce the likelihood of making poor choices
- Manage conflict more effectively
Building resilience
Wearing a Mona Lisa Smile (can lift your mood)
Smiling can reduce the intensity of negative emotions.
Building Your Emotional Vocabulary
Knowing a range of words that express feelings can help separate serious problems from not-so-serious problems.
Emotional Contagion
Emotions that are strongly positive or negative can lift or lower the energy of a team.
Four-Stage Breathing
Regulating mood by slowing down breathing.
Taming Your Self-Talk
Understanding how self-talk can play a powerful role in shaping daily experiences.
Identifying Common Personal Stressors
Anticipating types of situations that create stress to understand what it is that feels most stressful about them.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Reducing tension and preventing future tension.
Challenging Angry Thoughts
Putting anger into perspective by challenging angry thoughts.
Challenging Troublesome Thoughts
Coming up with more realistic perspectives on a situation.
Anger as a Symptom
Identifying anger as a “secondary emotion” – meaning that it may be a symptom of an underlying “primary emotion” that may be hidden or more difficult to deal with.
Linking Emotions, Thoughts and Behaviours
Understanding the link can be a useful tool for dealing with negative emotions in the workplace.
The Function of Emotions
Examining exactly what an emotional response may be communicating.
Emotional Triggers
Understanding emotional triggers helps to address different situations.
The Emotional Impact of Automatic Thoughts
Examining thoughts, which have a direct influence on feelings.
Understanding Personal Barriers
Understanding barriers is a first step toward being comfortable and effective when dealing with negative emotions in the workplace.
Interacting with others
Tracking Your Emotions
Gaining insight into emotional triggers.
Matching Intent and Behaviour
Changing external behaviour to better reflect intention.
Interpreting Negative Feedback Accurately
Interpreting feedback accurately by focusing on its constructive intent and keeping it in perspective.
Reducing Barriers to Tolerating Conflict
Becoming adept at tolerating and responding appropriately to conflict.
Monitoring Your Impact on Others
Staying aware of how mood impacts others.
Using Self-Talk to Overcome Barriers
Using positive self-talk to remember past successes in challenging situations.
Avoiding Impulsive Decisions
Avoiding decision-making that can lead to poor results and negative emotional reactions.
Evaluating Judgments
Learning not to automatically assume the worst in behavior of others.
Listening to Understand
Trying to understand not just what people say, but also what they really mean.
Communicating more effectively
Sending Assertive Body Signals
Changing bodily posturing and other non-verbal behaviours.
Understanding Basic Human Needs
Fulfilling basic human needs is critical for overall life satisfaction and can impact work performance.
Communicating without Judgment
Non-judgmental listening can help develop an understanding of a situation to move forward effectively.
Creating Uplifts (a brief communicative encounter)
Evoking positive emotions through brief conversations.
Asking Open-Ended Questions
Asking open-ended rather than closed questions may help to elicit useful information.
Building Empathy through Mirroring
Becoming more empathetic by mirroring the body positions, posture, tone, and facial expressions of others.
Listening without Interrupting
Pausing and listening to others can be helpful for gathering information and building a connection.
Additional Resources
The following are links to resources that may be of interest to you. If you click on a link you may be entering a third party website not maintained or controlled in any way by us or our affiliated companies. For more information, see Legal and Copyright.
Stress Reduction and the Power of Thought
Training to be more aware of thoughts.
A Primer on Sleep
Not getting enough sleep impacts multiple areas: energy levels, mood, appetite, motivation, concentration and efficiency.
Why Other People’s Emotional Responses Impact Us
Managing reactions more effectively by realizing that others’ emotions are a function of their own thoughts.