Emotional intelligence (EI) powerfully shapes our long-term health, relationships, and productivity.

In a nutshell, EI is three separate but related abilities: 1) recognizing and regulating your emotions, 2) discerning the emotions of other people and empathizing with them, 3) and using abilities from both 1 and 2 to communicate effectively and build healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with other people.

These abilities are not inborn and fixed. This means that, wherever your EI is now, you can develop and improve it, but the converse is also true. Developing EI is critical because emotions create the human experience and drive behavior—what we say and do and how we treat other people. Being unable to skillfully navigate the emotions of ourselves and others can cause conflict, regrettable behavior, and fractured relationships.

Despite its clear value, EI is not a focus of most academic programs or work environments. By attending this PD session, you will learn practical and applied strategies to help you increase your EI, overcome unhelpful conversational habits, and resolve challenges with other people. Special consideration and emphasis will be placed on diversity and cultural humility concepts. This will be an interactive PD where participants will not be merely attendees, but will learn skills, actively practice the skills, and receive direct feedback on their skills to develop strategies for use in their careers well after this training is complete.