The Office of Housing and Residence Life held a seminar titled “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” on Feb. 6.
The forum focused on teaching students how to increase their emotional intelligence. Nationally acclaimed speaker Joshua Fredenburg was the guest of the night. Fredenburg is a media commentator, leadership and diversity consultant, relationship expert and author of five books.
He is a speaker for Tedx and he is also the president of the award-winning Circle of Change Leadership Experience. COCLE is an organization that specializes in providing rising leaders with the leadership skills necessary to effectively lead and make a positive impact in their respective communities.
For nearly a decade, Fredenburg has served as a keynote speaker for different lectures, conferences, retreats and trainings at various colleges, non-profit organizations and corporate events in 44 states. Fredenburg is also pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational leadership at Nova Southeastern University.
Fredenburg appeared as a guest on BET, the Wayne Brady Show, the KTLA Morning Show in Los Angeles, the Daily Buzz National Morning Show, K-CAL 9 News in Los Angeles and CBS News in San Francisco. In his presentation, Fredenburg expressed the importance of emotional intelligence in academic, work and social spaces.
He defines emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize emotions and respond to them in a way that creates a positive outcome. Those who are emotionally intelligent are more effective at dealing with conflict, building positive relationships, communicating with others and avoiding negative situations.
Fredenburg made four main points in his seminar and presented them as questions for the audience to ask themselves if they aspire to be “emotionally fit.”
The questions were:
• What is your emotional trigger?
• Can you regulate your emotions?
• Are you an empathetic person?
• Are you socially aware?
Fredenburg presented helpful tips and strategies on how to find answers to those questions in various ways. He used quotes, pictures, videos, interactive activities and realistic examples for further understanding.
Fredenburg revealed that the top five ways to regulate your emotions are to learn to stay calm, challenge your perspective, develop and reach out to a support team and distract yourself from negative situations.
Fredenburg then warned the audience to “never let your emotions overpower your intelligence.” The most important point from Fredenburg’s presentation is that emotional strength is key to dealing with difficult people and situations.
Emotional intelligence brings success to the relationships and careers of those who have it. It accounts for 58 percent of the average worker’s job performance and 90 percent of high achievers have a high EQ to match. The key is to identify emotions and respond to them in the right way.
#aroundcampus #emotions