I am not sure that the Singaporian papers know that it is Emotional Intelligence – or rather lack thereof they are writing about. The Educational Minister is complaining that students don´t have enough drive and that they will have to develop personal qualities like the ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world and to collaborate across cultures. The Public Sector wants to see increased customer service and better engagement from their employees. – And that is exactly what Emotional Intelligence is all about. The good news for the Minister and the Public Sector is that EQ skills can be learned and developed. I am not saying that it is easy, it takes learning and self-reflection but people can definitely learn to manage their feelings better and use feelings in a constructive way leading to more effective behaviors.

An interesting example comes from the recruits in Singapore Armed Forces who went through what is called resilience training which focused on one-to-one coaching on reflecting and sharing feelings and other EQ skills. The recruits who had done the training outjumped, outran, outshot and outperformed those who did not.

Kandidata Asia has done “EQ in Action” training for over 10 years. We have identified the key components in how to improve EQ and we KNOW that even limited exposure and training in Emotional Intelligence can make a great impact.