Ep #325: The Importance of Emotional Intelligence - with Alan Cohen

This episode of The ShiftShapers Podcast is called "The Importance of Emotional Intelligence" with Alan Cohen, President at ASC Coaching & Speaking, TEDx speaker, and author of "The Connection Challenge" and "Those Difficult Talks."Today, Alan defines emotional intelligence and a key aspect of it known as empathy. He also discusses the role of self-assessment in leadership to overcome blind spots and how a shared purpose can make people transcend pettiness and achieve greatness.What You’ll Learn From This Episode:03:13 Building empathy and its role in decision-making08:09 Emotional awareness and its potential for business success09:25 Self-assessment: Exercises and books for you15:21 The power of shared purpose19:54 Tips for self-help during the pandemicQuotes:03:41 “Without empathy, we can be perceived as being harsh or cold or detached. And with the appropriate amount of empathy, we are a more individual connected leader, somebody that builds trust.”09:05 “Without connection, you might have results but you’re probably missing the greater potential to really build trust and engagement and a higher level of performance.”10:40 “We all have a blind spot. As awake and as mindful and as conscious as we are, there’s still something that we’re not seeing, and that thing that we’re not seeing could be the very thing that’s getting in the way.”20:14 “There’s such a crisis in empathy right now. People need that. People need to know that you see them and feel and care about them.”20:45 “Everybody is going through similar things and the conditions are affecting all of us. We all have to take care of ourselves in terms of body, mind, spirit, physicality, creative expression, all of those things.”