Strong Social Emotional Skills (Emotional Intelligence EI, Emotional Competence EC etc.) separate great professionals from the average. But based on countless studies in different fields involving working with and leading people, in families, at schools etc. social emotional skills are central to everyone’s well-being, success in studies and work, and efficacy in e.g. therapy, education, leading others, social and health care services.

A recent study from Google revealed, that competence didn’t correlate with a team’s productivity. Project Aristotle set out to identify the factors that formed so-called super teams.

Google was able to link productivity to what’s called “psychological safety”. Psychological safety is composed of two elements:

(1) High average social sensitivity

(2) Equality in the distribution of turn-taking

The researchers came to the conclusion that group norms, instead of the personal attributes of every individual, were the key factor in determining whether a group was successful. A psychologically safe group tends to allow all its participants to chime in equally, and it’s members are fast to detect the emotions of others, emitting empathy.

You can strengthen these skills!

Making a change requires that you know what you need to work on, have sufficient support, and can tolerate some anxiety related to all changes. The human brain does not like changes even when they are good. We think about changes as a river one needs to jump over. The tough part is often the bit where you are in the air, not able to go back but not knowing if you’ll make the distance and what you will face on the other side.

Knowing what you want to develop is crucial but you don’t have to know it from the start. Actually, it usually crystallizes in the first sessions into something different but logically related to your original thought. But that is a good thing! If the TV is broken fixing the toaster in whatever multiple innovative ways won’t help. Consequently, you evaluate our progress every session. If you aren’t getting the results you want, we are probably fixing a toaster or not challenging you enough. Often toasters are more pleasant to work on but your coach’s job is to make it easier for you to work on the things that really benefit you. And to help you get results!

The EASEL® Method:

EASEL® is a facilitation methodology that, for your benefit, bridges science and theories of the mind and relationships to your practical every-day-life at work and home. The human brain develops and learns in interactions with others and the environment from birth (actually before) throughout life. You have the same head attached to your legs at work and home, and you carry in your brain’s neural network your whole history. You are at the same time a unique individual and a typical human being. EASEL is about coaching individual human beings. For that reason, EASEL isn’t confined to one discipline or field, like one school of psychology or social neurosciences, or to just one theme, like leading others or mindfulness. At ET we work on the topics and questions you have, towards the goals you set. And thanks to the EASEL® tools and activities we can offer individually tailored coaching even in a group process.