Recently a major Australian bank asked us to deliver a highly flexible and practical solution to help staff understand and apply Emotional Intelligence (EI) at work. This particular division was under pressure from the remainder of the business and staff were seeking strategies and techniques for dealing with stressful work situations, for example; dealing with difficult people, handling demanding customers and meeting tight project deadlines.

The bank regularly holds a series of monthly information sessions across the division as part of an ongoing people initiative. These sessions were voluntary and well attended. We decided to deliver a series of 90 minute sessions that focused on some practical EI strategies to help participants better understand their workplace environment and the events, people and activities that made work stressful. Leading on from this we introduced the concept of EI with an emphasis on emotional self-awareness, interpersonal sensitivity, emotional resilience and intuitiveness (the most common abilities in the EI research).

The sessions were highly interactive and engaged the participants in a number of activities that highlighted the skills needed to better understand how we respond emotionally to workplace pressures. Participants also learnt how to better identify emotions in others as a way to anticipate and respond appropriately in difficult situations. Finally, we introduced a number of self-management strategies that included controlled breathing and ways to better understand the way our thinking influences the way we feel, and therefore behave in difficult workplace situations.

One of our experienced facilitators delivered four sessions on the day to an audience of over 150 people. The feedback from participants was some of the best we have received:

• 99 percent believed that the facilitator and method of delivery was effective
• 97 percent believed the topic was relevant to their role at the bank, and
• 95 percent believed that the workshop was well worth attending and that they would recommend it to others at the bank

Some participant comments include:

• It was interactive and put my thoughts to explore some stress-busting ideas
• Straightforward presentation with minimal psycho babble, messages came across clearly
• Well structured, it set out principles first then finished with simple, practical techniques/solutions
• I liked the facilitator’s ability to adapt the workshop to the needs of the audience
• The interactivity was great – some real techniques to practice and use
• The practical exercises/demonstrations and participation were excellent