Emotional Intelligence
Training Exercises and Resources

The ability to act allows you to adopt different roles as you see fit. To be good at emotional intelligence, it is very important to understand emotions and be able to express appropriate emotions when needed, perhaps to sympathise with others or establish rapport.

We always recognise actors as those who are capable in presenting a range of emotions in their roles from sadness to happiness to anger. They seem to be able to switch from one emotion to the next at ease, while their facial expression shows every tiny detail for that emotion. How do they do it?

This exercise is based on classic acting exercises used in acting schools to increase students’ sensory awareness. Rather than asking students to cry, or to show some strong emotion, they are encouraged to think of all the sensory information present in any typical everyday activity. By becoming more aware of these sensory data, they can learn to improvise and imitate down to the tiniest detail.

For best results, you may need to give a pre-course assignment to delegates so they can prepare and rehearse for their acting which takes place during the course.

This is a useful exercise in acting. Use this exercise to help people adopt certain roles or learn how to imitate target behaviours. Acting and understanding how an ideal role feels like can help delegates to get to those targets. For example, being able to act like a manager can significantly help people to eventually become a manager. Not only acting like a manager helps the person to see what it takes to be a manager, others will start to respond appropriately and will be more receptive when that person is elevated to the managerial level. For example, what is the typical body language of a manager? What do they say and how do they say it? What signals show that they are confident in their role? What gestures do they use to reassure? How do they show their feelings indirectly to allow saving face?

This exercise helps with various useful roles provided as mission cards. You can use the exercise as a template for other useful roles or choose based on the content of your course.

Self-awareness and self-motivation are critical competencies within emotional intelligence. Everyone must actively take steps to become better in these areas. A great way to achieve this is by systematically reviewing your own performance and thinking of what you are good at. This positive thinking can reinforce your confidence and boost your motivation. This simple, yet powerful exercise helps you to achieve this.

Remember, admiring yourself is not about being arrogant or feeding your ego. It is about knowing and appreciating what you are good at so you can inspire others around you and help them to grow as you grow further. This is particularly important in leadership roles.

You can provide this exercise during training or provide it as a pre or post-course assignment so delegates have more time to spend and reflect on their life and behaviour. If you run this as a pre-course assignment, you can ask them to bring their responses and then initiate a group discussion and encourage delegates to get inspired by each other.

This is a simple yet powerful exercise on emotional intelligence which helps delegates to engage all their senses while thinking about what they or others around them experience emotionally.

Knowing how to talk on the phone is critical these days as a lot of communication takes place on the phone. Many times, you may need to respond to unusual requests or remarks and think on the spot so you can respond as diplomatically as possible. For example, how would you answer if someone asks you for a favour that you feel you cannot provide while not wanting to appear difficult or cold. As an example for the business world, suppose a customer wants something you don’t have or offer, how can you reply in a positive way to preserve the customer and not disappoint them.

In this exercise, delegates will go through a number of roleplays to practice challenging scenarios.

You can use this exercise to get a group of people practice brainstorming and participate in constructive discussions. Delegates will go through a case study which can be applicable to just about anyone while still creating complex challenges. This exercise is also flexible in the choice of brainstorming method used or alternatively you can leave it to the delegates to decide. For example, you can use this exercise after explaining a particular brainstorming method such as mind mapping, six hats, Delphi method, etc., and then evaluate the performance of the delegates based on what you have discussed in the course. This exercise is ideal if all delegates are from the same organisation, though you can also use it when delegates are not from the same place.

This is an exercise in communication with the aim to increase awareness of body language and non-verbal communications.

This exercise uses a shock tactic to motivate people and get them to recognize the importance of the time we have in our life. It encourages them to think about life as a whole and draw up their mission statement sooner than later.

When working in a team or a group we may start to develop dislikes or simply become sensitive to certain behaviours. As in any relationship, we originally look at the similarities between ourselves and others and are happy to make friends and bond with them as we find more similar features or behaviours. However, over time as we learn more about each other, differences become more obvious and they may cause irritation and separation between us and other team members. Famous psychological studies show that the more we know about someone, the more likely that we start to dislike them (apart from very special people such as our partners).

To reverse this trend or stop it from growing we need to overcome our dislikes either by putting them in perspective with all the other ‘annoyances’ out there or simply let them know how uncomfortable it is and encourage them to correct their behaviour. This exercise helps the delegates to identify and quantify their dislikes.

Some people feel uncomfortable when they are in the presence of a group and confronted with silence. They just don’t know how to fill the gap. Others might want to get straight to the point with no warm-up chat which can appear cold and emotionless. In both cases, it’s great to know how to master the art of small talk and use it when necessary. This is a fun exercise that helps the delegates to become comfortable in making small talks with others.