Emotional Competence. Dagmar Rudel-Steinbauer

ty-line/>

      Content

       1. Instead of an I ntroduction

       2. Thou ghts that led me to write this Book

       3. The Cooperation of Emotion, Mind and Body

      Our Emotional System

      What are Feelings and Emotions?

      Emotional Markers

      Competence

      Empathy – the most important Requirement

       4. Emotional Competence in Practice?

      The four fields of Emotional Competence

      Vigilance for myself and my Emotions

      Vigilance towards Others

      Vigilance for common Interaction

      Ability to regulate Emotions and Motivation to act

       5. Why do we need Emotional C ompetence

      Emotional Competence in our private Lives

      Significance of Emotional Competence in each Individual’s Career

      Emotional Competence in Leadership

      Emotional Competence and its Significance in Business

      Future Perspective: Encouraging Emotional Competence in Business

      The “Sports Side” of Emotional Competence

       6. Nurt uring and Developing Emotional Competence

      Educational Examples for Emotional Competence

      Vigilance in Self-Nurturing and Development

      Vigilance in Nurturing and Development of Others

      Vigilance for mutual Interactions

      Ability to regulate Emotions and (self) Motivation to act

      7. Further Thoughts

      Warning – Feelings are infectious

      A Self-Experiment in the Area of Sports

      A Tree must be bent while it is young

      Happiness – the Dopamine of Life

      Humor Research

      To lead, you must arouse Emotions

      Action and Sports

      Nature as “the Skill of Lingering”

      Earth yourself

      Arts and Crafts - artistic Activities

      Music

      Writing

      Drifting in Quiet

      8. Your Fountain – an Outlook

      Glossary

      Appendix

      Further Literature

      Acknowledgments

      1. Instead of an Introduction

      You don´t want to read a long introduction but want to know what this book is all about? You will learn how emotional competence can help you succeed in your personal, business and private life.

      You will find the answers to the following questions:

       What exactly is emotional competence?

       How can emotional competence benefit your personal, business and private life?

       What possibilities and methods are there to encourage and develop your own emotional competence?

       2 Thoughts that led me to write this Book

      “What is the use to reach the moon if we cannot overcome the chasm that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important expedition and without it, all others are useless.”

      Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer and pilot (1900–1944)

      A strong trend for new key qualifications (such as the capability for teamwork, cooperation and motivation) has been noticeable in the last few years, which are associated with social or emotional competence.

      According to many studies and reports, it is increasingly important to bring a certain portion of these qualities such as emotional competence into our professional as well as private lives.

      The psychotherapists say that people are threatened with self-alienation through their lack of self-perception and the overload of external stimuli; and so our innermost, emotions and needs will be neglected.

      Futurologists are predicting that values such as empathy and emotions will be in great demand.

      Psychologists know that the key to all social competence is in the presence of emotional competence.

      At the same time, the educational ideals of our western culture stress the importance of intelligence, logic and rational thinking. Grades, Pisa tests, exams and minimum duration of studies are the focus of the educational discussions.

      Where are, in fact, the sensitization and encouragement of emotional competence in our culture, which should be supported in all areas? It has little room in our school system, as well as serious support for emotional competence in areas of adult education - mostly in professional life -, which is of very little value at this time. It is present only in a few curriculum or master courses just as it is not present in leadership training programs.

      A further consideration, which led me to this subject and motivated me to write this book, was my many years in adult education, human resources development, consultation and coaching.

      I realized - repeatedly - that the participants had the right tools for good communication or recognized the solutions to their conflicts. However, they lacked deeper competences such as the needed amount of empathy or sensitivity to solve the misunderstanding or conflicts in the team, to see the other person´s point of view or at least to try to understand him or her.

      Social education has also strongly influenced and inspired me. The subject of how to strengthen our sensibility towards others has often been brought up in seminars that I have held as a trainer. Yet, it is my observation that especially the area of social education needs an awareness of one´s own feelings and emotions. For the percentage of burn-outs in these jobs are growing (but not only here) as the people involved are so devoted that they often forget to look after themselves. The awareness of one´s own psychological well-being is often forgotten.

      Likewise, I had the impression that conflicts took place because of the lack of ability for maintaining social interaction, as well as not knowing one´s breaking point and the inability to regulate and motivate oneself.

      These four areas are what emotional competence is all about:

       To have vigilance for myself and my emotions

       To have vigilance towards others

       To have vigilance for relationships and common interaction

       Ability to regulate one´s own emotions and motivation to act accordingly

      The ability to recognize emotions and to deal with them accordingly is not to be underestimated. In this way, emotional competence plays a very important role, if not the most important role – as expressed by Saint Exupéry in the introduction.

      There are many very good books about emotional competence. But I found that they lacked ideas how to increase one´s own emotional competence. In this book, I also want to give guidelines and suggestions that can support the promotion of emotional competences. I developed