Personal Literacy: The human side of our professional lives
128b Emotional and Social Intelligence: The Really Hard Skills 

You have often heard that learning sorts into two types of skill:  The hard skills and the soft skills.  But, if you really think about it, there is nothing “soft” about how we see ourselves and others and how we interact as humans.  We are now calling the soft skills of emotional intelligence and social intelligence the “really hard skills.”   In this program we learn to access our own emotional and social intelligence and how to interact more effectively with others—while still being authentically our “self.”  We explore what makes us human, how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, empathy and its role in the workplace, and what it means to tend to our personal well-being. Workshop exercises, assessments, and tools provide new ways of thriving at work and helping others do the same. 

Learning objectives:
• Know that the workplace has changed post COVID and everything else that has happened in the last 3 years 
• Recognize that we have to know and use more sophisticated approaches and tools for managing ourselves and others
• Be much more effective with ourselves and others in order to create the outcomes we desire 
• Learn some of what makes humans tick; who are we and how do we manifest ourselves in the workplace
• Know how to read others and manage ourselves 
• Understand the role of authenticity in leadership 
• Develop mental discipline 
• Recognize the cause/effect of stress and better manage stress and pressure 
• Learn what emotions are, where they come from, and how they play out in the workplace
• Gain understanding of how to work with difficult people and situations

Instructor: Laree Kiely, Ph.D. is president and CEO of We Will, Inc. and professor at the USC Marshall School of Business.