TEC now offers Emotional Intelligence training

KNOXVILLE, TN, UNITED STATES

10.05.2022

Story by Tech. Sgt. Darby Arnold 

I.G. Brown Training and Education Center

“Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand your own emotions and the emotions of those around you, and then using that awareness to modify your behaviors and help control your relationships,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Heather McNeil, a curriculum developer and instructor at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center here. “The Emotional Intelligence class covers the four core skills in emotional intelligence and gives insight into how you can use those and grow those skills in your own life.”
Class participants must take an online appraisal before attending. This appraisal reveals the individual’s strengths and weaknesses and is used to refer to throughout the six-hour class.
“This class can help people by bringing attention to things we often attribute to personality, and highlights the fact that personality is only a part of it,” McNeil said. “Emotional intelligence is a skill set that can be developed, so you are not stuck with ‘well I’m just this angry person’. You can take the awareness that you get from the class and apply it in social settings so that you have a much better impact on those around you and in your relationships.”
The first part of the course focuses on understanding what emotional intelligence is and then incorporates strategies to help improve strengths and weaknesses over time.
“The Air Force evaluates members on these things,” McNeil said. “If you go into myFSS and answer all the questions in your evaluation, it specifically asks about emotional intelligence: How do members interact with teammates? How do they manage their emotions? It specifically addresses all four of the core skills we teach you how to deal with in Emotional Intelligence training.”
Students are encouraged to take a re-assessment after six months to see how they have improved in the four core areas.
“My favorite part of the class was the strategies chart,” said Tech. Sgt. Naieema Colon, an Enlisted Professional Military Education (EPME) instructor at the I.G. Brown Training and Education Center here. “(We learned) different strategies to improve our emotional intelligence in specific areas. They were strategies that we can use in our daily life, whether it be at work or at home.”
Airmen from all ranks and government civilian employees can attend the course. Civilian clothes are encouraged for students to wear to create a more open, comfortable environment among all ranks and career fields. The class is unit funded but can be offered on-site at the Training and Education Center or as a mobile training team.
This course can be requested for an organization at any time by contacting TEC University at [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 10.05.2022
• Date Posted: 11.07.2022 13:46
• Story ID: 432798
• Location: KNOXVILLE, TN, US