Continuing from yesterday’s post, here are the remaining steps you’ll want to follow when you’re training your employees to be more emotionally intelligent.
4. Train Leaders First as Servant Leaders
If you want your Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) training to be effective and long-lasting, you must train your leaders first. Emotionally intelligent leaders will inspire their employees to be more emotionally intelligent, too, and will help set the tone for their entire organizations and promote a positive company culture.
Leaders with high E.I. can also be considered “servant leaders” because they exhibit great listening skills, are highly aware of themselves and others, have high levels of empathy, and have other similar attributes.
Read: Why Your Leadership Program Should Focus on Servant Leadership and Training Exercises for Developing Servant Leaders–or Any Leaders for more details about this.
5. Implement Interactive Workshops
It’s imperative that your E.I. training modules include real-time and interactive workshops, even via virtual simulations or gamified modules. Employees can’t just read about E.I. if they want to fully understand it and embrace it—they must practice it in real life.
Include workshops that include role-playing exercises where employees must practice active listening, empathy, and self-regulation. And have employees write in journals when they self-reflect on their own range of emotions and circumstances. And offer interactive exercises that promote social awareness and effective relationship building among employees.
6. Develop Coaching and Mentorship Programs
Keeping in mind that learning to be more emotionally intelligent doesn’t happen overnight and can prove to be challenging at times (refer to yesterday’s post), it’s important to consider developing programs that help support your E.I. training program long term, too.
Peer coaching, where employees talk to one another about their E.I. journeys, struggles, and wins, could prove to be helpful. And coaches who help employees navigate more complex situations and emotions could also prove to significantly benefit and support an E.I. training program long term.
7. Encourage and Promote Organizational Social Responsibility
Because social awareness is critical to promoting E.I. and is, in fact, a key component of it, consider implementing programs and initiatives across your organization that further promote social responsibility among employees. For instance, you could start a food drive for the homeless or team up with a local nonprofit that needs volunteers, and so on.
8. Create an Environment with Safe Spaces
To truly have an effective E.I. training program, it’s critical that your employees have safe spaces where they can learn about themselves and how to regulate their emotions, learn about others around them, and learn how to effectively manage their relationships and social situations.
Employees must feel safe and secure when undergoing E.I. training and must be assured that they won’t be ostracized or ridiculed when it’s time for them to learn and grow.
As you’re developing your E.I. training program, consider the steps above and in yesterday’s post to ensure its effectiveness and longevity.