Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFI’s Community Manager

In 1995 I read Daniel Goleman’s bestseller – Emotional Intelligence. It’s one of those books that I keep in my library and refer to often. Emotional Intelligence teaches us the power of understanding and controlling our emotions and as a business tool it’s invaluable. When I heard that executive trainer Christina Pecas was facilitating a webinar on June 12, 2014 as part of the UFI Education Centre’s webinar series, my interest was piqued.
Based on the work of renowned scientist Dr. Paul Ekman, Christina promises that her webinar will, “Build business for your events and create constructive relationships with your international contacts.”
I asked Christina for more details about her webinar.

Barry:

What is the key message you would like the participants of your webinar to take away?

Christina:

Professional life is essentially dealing with people. All the professionals who wish to become more effective and successful need to understand the principals of emotional intelligence. Many experts now believe that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is more important than Intelligence Quotient (IQ). EQ will enhance the quality of relationships and succeed in building long term relationships.

Barry:

Are the skills of emotional intelligence the same in different cultures?

Christina:

All humans no matter where they come from seven emotions: fear, happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust and contempt. These emotions are universal and that is what Paul Ekman has proven with his research. We have the ability to read these emotions on most faces, no matter which country they come from. Paul Ekman has provided solid evidence that we display some basic emotions in a way that is understood universally.

What will be culturally different is the way the cultures display those emotions. For example, it will be socially acceptable in some countries to hide them.

Barry:

How difficult is it to master the skills of Emotional Intelligence?

Christina:

The good news is, IQ may be a bit harder to change, but anyone can work on developing a better EQ. All humans have evolved to read people and recognize what they are feeling. So we can all master these skills if we are motivated.

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