GoContractor were delighted to welcome emotional intelligence (EQ) experts ‘The Bolder Company’ to the Spencer Hotel in Dublin City Center on April 18th for an event catering to professionals in the construction and energy sectors. It’s an accepted fact that heavy industry has room to improve when it comes to emotional intelligence and the event was a great reminder of why companies and individuals should make it an area to prioritize. Those in attendance gained a new awareness of what is emotional intelligence and how integral it is in their personal and professional lives, as well as potential strategies to boost their own EQ.
Sean Fennell, CEO, GoContractor at the Emotional Intelligence Event, Dublin, Ireland
GoContractor CEO Sean Fennell kicked off the event by briefly explaining what GoContractor does and what is emotional intelligence. GoContractor provides online contractor management, mainly to medium and large companies in the construction, oil, gas, utilities and mining industries. Sean has spent his career working in construction and heavy industry and noted that emotions can run high on worksites and that improving levels of emotional intelligence should be a priority.
He then introduced the founding partners of the Bolder Company, Ellen Feldman Ornato and Jenny Drescher, who facilitated a session of their emotional intelligence program, ‘Reading the Room – the Dynamics of Emotional Intelligence in Action’. It was an interactive session, the idea being that everyone would learn through these ‘applied improvisational techniques’. They warned the attendees that they might be made a little uncomfortable by some of these techniques. However, everyone involved in the session committed to the exercises and got a lot out of them.
As Jenny and Ellen explained, so much of what is emotional intelligence is being able to control your own actions. If your goal is to change someone else’s personality, you’re probably going to end up disappointed having wasted your time. You should make efforts to improve your emotional responses to make the workplace environment better for everyone. Jenny explained that what might seem like harmless teasing might be far more harmful for the one on the receiving end.
In the Bolder Company’s experience, this kind of workplace teasing is very common in heavy industry. The phrase “only a joke” is a common refrain in these workplaces in both the US and Ireland. Many workers may have a limited vocabulary when it comes to their emotions and this can be a problem when trying to build an organizational safety culture. This kind of behavior can exist throughout an organization from top to bottom and changing it for the better can result in dramatic improvements within a company.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Jenny and Ellen led the group in a series of exercises that gave attendees an increased awareness of EQ on a group and personal basis. It was interesting to see how quickly group dynamics formed in the course of these simple exercises. A major cause of these dynamics was due to a person’s relationship and response to control. It is a common response to question, “Am I being controlled by an external force” and to immediately start resisting. However, those who develop strong EQ skills can learn to make space and share power and control with other people.
Heavy industry is often very focused on skills and trades, however this does not mean that skills to do with emotional intelligence should be ignored. In high-pressure and hazardous work environments, as are common in heavy industry, the ability to be emotionally intelligent can be the difference that keep workers safe. In many cases, emotional intelligence is actually harder to learn than physical skills but as the Bolder Company showed, it can be taught and it can be learned.
