Sunday, August 4 | 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Adam Timm, President/Founder, The Healthy Dispatcher
Attend a repeat of this session on Monday, August 5, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Did you know that the best 9-1-1 centers are more emotionally intelligent than other centers? They have leaders who are emotionally intelligent, they hire for it, they train for it, and they actively seek ways to model emotional intelligence skills on a daily operational basis. Improving your EQ (emotional intelligence quotient for short) is the surest way to enhance your self-awareness, improve your communication, and be a team member that people want to work with. Far from being the skillset of a chosen few, emotional intelligence skills can be learned, developed and mastered by anyone.
On Sunday, August 4, the session, “Know Thyself and Others: How to Use Emotional Intelligence,” offered a deep-dive into what EQ is all about, how the skills are used and how each person can develop their use of this essential toolkit. The biggest challenge 9-1-1 professionals face during their career is remaining emotionally attuned to callers, coworkers and themselves. Exposure to vicarious trauma and witnessing the suffering of others can erode even the most sincere desire to remain empathic, as we bottle up unresolved feelings and take the next call. As a short-term coping strategy, this is OK. But as a long-term method for meeting years’ worth of challenges, it can begin to have a permanent effect.
This fast-paced interactive session addressed the most important EQ skills for 9-1-1 professionals to keep fresh and further develop, including empathy, interpersonal relationships and emotional self-awareness. Demonstrating empathy, the skill of understanding and appreciating how another person feels, we can build connection with those we serve and lead. Practicing the skill of interpersonal relationships, we can establish mutually beneficial relationships with our fellow team members. By enhancing our emotional self-awareness, we can better understand the underlying causes of our emotions, our triggers and their effects, and we can more effectively use emotional information rather than meeting overwhelm and missing important cues.
Attendees were given tools and strategies for becoming more aware of their skill level in these and other areas of EQ, along with steps to develop the skills most beneficial to their personal and professional success. There’s no question that improving one’s EQ is the difference between being a team member who contributes to a culture that’s positive, supportive, and fun, or one who inadvertently compounds the negativity and tribalism so often the norm. Often called “personal leadership,” or the ability to lead yourself first, approaching your work and the world around you with high EQ will ensure you are being the leader you always wanted to be.
by Adam Timm, President/Founder, The Healthy Dispatcher (www.thehealthydispatcher.com)
