Courageous Conversations

Have you ever been nervous to have a conversation with someone? Have you ever backed out of that conversation at the last minute? Has a difficult conversation ever been sprung on you, and you wish you had responded better or differently? Are you curious about your emotional intelligence? If so, this LSP workshop with one of our most popular instructors is definitely for you!

About the Workshop
In this session, you will learn tools and strategies for becoming a more courageous communicator. First, you will get the opportunity to receive feedback on your emotional intelligence as assessed by the most valid assessment available, the MSCEIT. Many students find this to be the most valuable assessment they receive while at Johnson. Next, you will learn about your strengths and weaknesses when interacting with others, strategies to help the conversation go better than you might expect, to communicate in a way that dignifies the other party, and to create an effective exit strategy for concluding the conversation. As well, you will leave with techniques to ensure that you get past what is often the most difficult part of a difficult conversation, initiating it.

About the MSCEIT
This workshop will be your opportunity to take the MSCEIT, which "evaluates Emotional Intelligence through a series of objective and impersonal questions. It tests the respondent's ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions. Based on scenarios typical of everyday life, the MSCEIT measures how well people perform tasks and solve emotional problems, rather than having them provide their own subjective assessment of their emotional skills." 

The MSCEIT is by far the most scientifically-validated measure for assessing emotional intelligence. It has been administered to many thousands of people throughout the world, and unlike many other measures (such as Myers-Briggs), it is predictive of important outcomes such as higher-quality interpersonal relationships, better leadership outcomes, and better health outcomes. This test is administered to some portion of students each year, and every year students come away greatly enriched, and having learned something about themselves and their interpersonal style that they may not have ever known before (but their friends or significant others assure them is true!) And therein lies the importance of this assessment. This reveals areas for improvement that you may never have even realized you had.

Students who enroll in this workshop will be given access to the MSCEIT in advance of the workshop, and will receive their test results at the workshop. Leadership Programs will cover the costs of the MSCEIT for each enrolled student.

Please note: This workshop is your only opportunity tto take the MSCEIT this semester. It is not being administered in any academic coursework this spring.

Eligibility
This workshop is only open to all Johnson students, but you must enroll by Tuesday, April 15th in order to participate so that we have sufficient time to allow you to take the MSCEIT in advance of the LSP.

About the Instructor
Sean Martin is the 2013-14 Johnson Leadership Programs Fellow.  He holds a PhD in Management and Organizations from Johnson, and an MBA from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.  Sean’s primary areas of research are ethics and leadership, with a focus on how leadership and organizational culture influence individuals’ ethical values—what their values are, how important they are to one’s identity, whether they are considered when interpreting a situation, and whether those values do, in fact, guide behavior.

While at Johnson, Sean has worked independently and with colleagues to develop research projects and business cases with numerous companies and has collaborated with a team of researchers from Cornell, University of Texas, University of Michigan, the London Business School, and Harvard Business School to develop and pilot a cutting-edge ethics and leadership course. He has also taught the popular Johnson course, “Becoming a Leader” and been an instructor for NBA 5700, "Johnson Team Leadership Experience." Prior to his doctoral studies, Sean worked in business development consulting, helping clients identify and develop markets for new technologies and services.

Graduation Credit
All Johnson students are eligible to use up to 1.5 credit hours from Leadership Skills Program and/or Managerial Skills Program workshops toward the MBA degree credit-hour requirements. This LSP workshop is worth 0.2 credits.