Lotus People hosted our first breakfast event last week at the beautiful ABC Pool in the Domain joined by our guest speaker, Joannie Lemay, a wellbeing consultant who works with companies such as Uber and Dexus.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and please read on for an overview of the key takeaways.

Joannie opened the event by speaking about how important it is for us, as individuals, to be self-aware and how emotional intelligence should be rated as more important than IQ.

EQ Defined

According to Joannie, EQ is defined as ‘the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships with others so that we can live our intentions and reach our goals.’

Suggesting that true EQ starts with the self, we can then use this self-awareness to be mindful of the impact that we have on others in our interactions.

In the talk, Joannie touched on 5 key areas to focus on when speaking about emotional intelligence;

Self-awareness and control

The ability to fully understand ourselves and use that information to manage our emotions productively.

Empathy

The ability to understand the perspective of others. This area includes the competencies of listening to others, and understanding how our words and actions affect others.

Social expertness

The ability to build genuine relationships and bond, and express caring, concern and conflict in healthy ways.

Personal influence

The ability to positively lead and inspire others, as well as ourselves. Leading others and getting results from others are the components of influence.

Mastery of purpose and vision

The ability to bring authenticity to our lives and live out our intentions and values.

 Final Take Aways

There were a number of insightful theories discussed during the workshop – a huge thank you to our audience who shared their ideas and engaged fully in the activities;

• Smile! Our manner and the way we behave has an impact on others’ emotions and can affect their day. This is in your control to change, so be positive!

• Emulate the behaviours of inspirational and influential leaders in your life. EQ can be learned and improved by observing and copying the positive behaviours of others.

• Build bonds; honour the fact that people in your organisation have different ideas and values to share so always listen closely to what they have to say and be authentic in your response.

• Thank you again to everyone for their involvement, to our guest speaker Joannie, and to the wonderful Lotus People team for bringing it all together.

If you are interested in being involved or invited to our next event, please reach out to sinead@lotuspeople.com.au or 02 8274 4601.