Feelings

WHO	Group
WHERE	Group-room
MATERIAL	Pen, paper, computer
FACILITATOR	Host

Introduction

No matter if we are aware of them or not, our emotions influence our actions, behaviour and leadership capacities.

As leaders, our emotional skills have a bigger impact.

Research within Emotional Intelligence shows that the higher up one is in organizational hierarchy, the more crucial emotional skills become to success. Similarly, being in a position of power makes it more likely that our emotional state and ability to manage our emotions have an effect on other people.

In addition, leadership concerned with global issues requires the capacity to deal with the emotional load of what is happening in the world, in addition to our immediate surroundings.

Being able to recognize and describe our emotional state in its complexity, especially when it is difficult, increases our ability to deal with the world as it is, increases resilience, wellbeing, ability to take constructive actions, take decisions and achieve goals.

Intention

The intention of this task is to increase our ability to recognize, understand and manage our own emotions.

We aim to become aware of the role that emotions play for us, to identify where we have room for improvement in emotional skills, and to create personal strategies for improving our emotional skills.

How:

1	(5min) Find a quiet place to sit, and observe your own emotions for five minutes. Try to not judge your emotional state. Simply observe and try to recognize the emotions you are feeling.
2	(10min) Complete this (or here if other link doesnt work) simple test about emotional skills. The intention of the test is not to get a good score, but rather to become more aware of the role emotions play in your life, and to identify areas you may have a benefit of working with.
3	(15min) Reflect on your experience and how you scored yourself on the test: -What does the assessment you've given about yourself say about your ability to manage your own feelings? -What do you think you are doing well and can strengthen? -What do you think you can do better or otherwise develop? -What do you think you should stop doing? -What could you focus on in emotional skills to make the most positive impact on your self-leadership skills?
4	(40min) Share your reflections with the rest of the group, one by one and with full focus on one person at the time. Make sure that you have enough time for questions.

References

http://ei.yale.edu/ https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-should-say-no-to-positivity-and-yes-to-our-negative-emotions/

http://www.danielgoleman.info/effective-leaders-know-the-science-behind-their-behavior/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/opinion/sunday/are-you-in-despair-thats-good.html?_r=0 https://hbr.org/2014/05/emotions-are-data-too