Too Much or Too Little: When Do Empathy and Assertiveness Limit Success?
As professional coaches who use the lens of emotional intelligence to coach our clients towards greater professional success, we notice a consistent struggle to successfully employ both empathy and assertiveness for greater influence and advancement.
During this presentation we will look at the latest research on the topics of empathy and assertiveness and suggest a new mental model for using these two social-emotional skills towards better relational outcomes. We will engage in group discussion to more clearly define our terms and learn how empathy and assertiveness when jointly employed exert greater influence in any system.
What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills – your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests.—Daniel Goleman
Learning outcomes:
- Gain better working definitions for both terms
- Identify behaviors that represent healthy use of empathy and assertiveness
- Learn how to better balance empathy and assertiveness, especially during conflict
- Identify your own areas for improvement
About our speakers*:
Kelley Russell-DuVarney, MA, PCC, is an executive coach working in a variety of industries including higher education, healthcare, technology, government, and the non-profit space. She is trained as a certified positive psychology coach (CPPC), appreciative inquiry practitioner and she is a credentialed member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is certified to administer the EQ-i suite of individual and 360 assessments of emotional intelligence.
Kelley's background in sociology keeps her curious about the interplay of agency and structure and helps her to notice both institutional and self-imposed barriers to success. She served on her local ICF Board for four years and is now Past President of the Greater Austin Chapter.
When she’s not coaching you will find her out for a run, volunteering in her community, spending time with friends, family and neighbors and traveling to explore new places. Originally a native New Englander from Massachusetts, Kelley, her husband, and two adult sons have called Austin, TX home for the past 20 years.
Marilyn Orr, MA, CEC, PCC Many coaches find a niche - for Marilyn, that niche is emotional intelligence and resilience. She published How Resilient Are Your Shocks?, a practical workbook on increasing resilience and loves helping clients increase their capacity.
Marilyn is the training partner for the world leader in emotional intelligence assessments, MHS, for South/Central Texas both completing assessments with clients and equipping other professionals to use the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ-i 360 tools.
You might catch the odd word or phrase that lets you know Marilyn has Canadian roots (eh!). Marilyn and her husband Bill realized a long-held dream last year in the completion of their sustainable, modern wellness and event center in the Texas Hill Country.
* In the initial email about this meeting, I swapped the pictures of our speakers. So sorry about that, we programmers have trouble counting to 10 (binary) sometimes.
