Emotional Intelligence Group Exercise
UNDERSTAND FEELINGS
Description
This exercise has been designed to help you reflect on real issues in your past when you were at odds with another individual or group. Being able to understand how others feel and why is vital to most areas of life. Managing relationships, whether personal or in the workplace, cannot be successful unless you understand individual motivations.
Task
Working in pairs, identify a situation where someone reacted in a way that caused you surprise, disappointment or hurt. It could be a personal situation or in the workplace.
- Briefly outline what happened.
- What did they say?
- How did they say it? Describe their tone of voice?
- Describe their body language.
- How would you label the emotions they may have been feeling?
- What might have been the trigger?
- Was there anything you did or said that might have exacerbated the situation?
- Could you have recognised their feelings earlier in the interaction? Did they give any clues early on that they were concerned or upset?
- What could you have done to positively influence the situation?
- What have you learned that you could apply in the future?