Amidst rising stress levels driven by labor shortages and economic challenges, the importance of holistic workplace safety solutions is paramount. This episode of the DORN Companies Injury Prevention Academy focuses on the pivotal role of emotional intelligence in addressing workplace risks.
Join Chyrisse Fugal, Senior Consultant at BlueEQ, as she explains how emotional intelligence can reduce risks, cut costs, and promote a healthier, more productive work environment. Tune in to explore the heart of workplace safety in today's challenging work landscape.
What is emotional intelligence?
Harvard Health Publishing defines emotional intelligence as “the ability to identify and regulate our own emotions, to recognize the emotions of other people and feel empathy toward them, and to use these abilities to communicate effectively and build healthy, productive relationships with others.”
As Chyrisse explains, there’s a more succinct way to define emotional intelligence: “the gap between stimulus and response.” Emotional intelligence is a way of describing a person’s ability to apply empathy and clear consideration to a situation before reacting. Without emotional intelligence, individuals can struggle to adapt to challenging situations and interpersonal conflicts, leading to heightened tension in social situations as well as increased personal stress. This has broad implications for how workplace safety leaders develop and implement their programs, especially when seeking to create more integrated, whole-person solutions that meaningfully address worker mental health issues. As host Cheryl Roy explains in the podcast, slightly more than one-third of all people possess emotional intelligence. However, emotional intelligence is not a hardcoded trait—it’s a skill, and like any skill, it can be improved with practice.
What are the benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace?
With few exceptions, today’s workplaces are highly social environments, and any executive will tell you that cooperation and teamwork are essential for helping an organization function and grow. Even work-from-home employees and other remote workers must work together with their colleagues, managers, and clients to solve problems and achieve goals. As Chyrisse Fugal explains in our podcast, functioning workplaces depend on workers’ ability to communicate their thoughts, address conflicts proactively, and process their emotional responses to everyday events. A strong safety culture inherently encourages workers to speak up, making them feel heard and respected as individuals as well as team members. Without that social coherence, minor obstacles or conflicts can snowball into major issues that can hinder performance and productivity. A lack of emotional intelligence can also lead to safety hazards going unaddressed in the workplace, potentially leading to costly injuries.
About Our Guest
Born in South Africa and based in Utah, Chyrisse Fugal is a Senior Consultant at BlueEQ, a major consultancy organization leading the way in defining how emotional intelligence can be transformed into an asset for employers of all types. Chyrisse has absorbed a wealth of first-hand experiences throughout her career in account management, sales, and executive leadership, making her a foremost expert in emotional intelligence and a key source of insight for employers looking to take their organizations to the next level. She specializes in psychological safety, team coherence, and maximizing organizational potential.
Ready to learn how DORN can help your organization develop cost-effective, holistic safety and wellness solutions? Contact us today for a free consultation.
