Good Morning Fellow Toastmasters and Guests,
How many of you heard about the great Thai Cave Rescue that happened a few weeks back? A bunch of 12 kids from a soccer team and their coach got stuck in a flooded cave for nearly 2 weeks, before they were rescued out by a group of cave divers. Today, I’m going to explain to you the concept of Emotional Intelligence with the story of the Thai Cave Rescue event.
[Also read: Pathways IceBreaker Who am I?]
The name of the soccer team coach is Ekk. He is just a 25 years old young man, who displayed high levels of emotional maturity during the crisis. To me, Ekk is an epitome of Emotional Intelligence.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to:
- Recognise your feelings
- Recognise others’ feelings
- Manage your emotions
- Manage your social relationships
- Motivate yourself
If the coach Ekk is an emotionally weak person like many of us, he would’ve shouted at the kids. “Its all because of you guys… YOU wanted to celebrate the birthday. YOU wanted to go to the Cave. I told you its late. I told you its going to rain. Now, you got me into a BIG trouble.”.
Or, he would’ve blamed the environment and circumstances “God.. Why did you punish us like this? Don’t you have any kind heart? What mistake did we do? Why did you flood the cave?”
Or, the coach could’ve also got demotivated and said “Guys! Thats it. We are going to be dead”.
Dear friends… don’t we all go through these emotional bursts, in a crisis situation?
But the coach Ekk didn’t do any of this. He was aware of his emotions… he was aware of the emotions of the kids. He put a brave face to the kids and told them “Kids. Don’t worry! Let us conserve our energy. Let us meditate and keep ourselves calm. Let us share the food that we’ve. Let us drink the water that is seeping out of the cave. I’m very hopeful that someone will come and rescue us”.
Coach Ekk not only managed his emotions. He managed the emotions of the kids also. He kept himself and the kids motivated during the first week, when they were isolated from the external world. When the cave divers found them after a week, he sent a note of apology to the parents of the kids, displaying his ability to manage social relationships well.
Coach Ekk is a perfect example of a person with high Emotional Intelligence.
How many of you want to develop your Emotional Intelligence?
You are at the right place. You are learning all of these skills at Toastmasters. Whenever you are playing a role in Toastmasters - be it a speaker or a club officer or a speech evaluator, you are learning to build your emotional intelligence.
When you are practicing and delivering a speech, you become conscious of your feelings and emotions. You learn the art of managing your emotions, to suit the mood of the speech.
When you deliver evaluations, you learn the art of recognising other’s feelings - especially, the feelings of the speaker whom you are evaluating.
When you walk into the club, you get to interact with various members and guests, learning to manage your social relationships
And, last but not the least, you are learning to keep yourself motivated to attend the meetings regularly and play various roles week after week.
[Also read: Pathways IceBreaker Who am I?]
Conclusion
Dear Toastmasters and Guests, research says that “An individual’s success at work and life is 80% dependent on EQ and only 20% dependent on IQ”. And what that means is “The time that you spend in learning Java or doing your CA inter, is less influential in deciding your success, when compared to the time that you spend here in Toastmasters”. You can look at some of the Toastmasters in our own club, who have developed enormous emotional maturity at a very young age and become successful … TM Shriram, TM Siddharth, TM Gautam Sharma… and many more.
If you want to be successful in life… start attending our meetings regularly… and start playing various roles… and develop your Emotional Intelligence… in the most intelligent way, through Toastmasters.
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