Emotional Intelligence: Identify, Harness and Manage Emotions

Provided by ShipCon Limassolm Ltd 12^th-16^th March 2018

Erasmus 2018

A Report by Lavinia English and Mary Roche Cleary

As leaders of people and managers of projects, we wanted to understand and develop skills that motivate others and build stronger teams. We recognised that our professional degrees just weren’t enough in today’s super competitive workplace and we needed to learn how to strategically utilise the emotional diversity of team members to benefit the team and organisation as a whole.

The course was very good with many positive aspects. We got to meet people from all over Europe, who work in similar jobs as us and in the designed groupwork and discussions, we shared knowledge and experiences. The content was well structured and broad enough to incorporate the diversity of interests in the group. The facilitators were knowledgeable, but lacked the resources to give us an excellent experience. One of the facilitators engaged really well with the group but seemed to lack real life experience of the subject. The course was taught through English as the common language, but it was not the facilitator’s first language and there was some messages lost in translation – this was more difficult for our non-English speaking colleagues who couldn’t predict or infer meaning. At least one of the participants didn’t speak or understand English at all, which made participation impossible for him and his colleagues had to translate continuously. The self-assessments and personal reflections were very worthwhile and we both gained insights on what we’re good at and what we need to work on.

However, the room was too crowded for such a large group and there was no place to socialise and have coffee during breaks. There were no scheduled activities with the whole group, so we arranged our own activities with classmates, between lectures.

We learned the theory of mind, we learned about child development using case studies we identified red flags that contribute to developing emotional intelligence. This is often the core of our work, dealing with people in adult literacy who have had negative experiences. We learned about vertical and lateral thinking and the necessity for both. We studies DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats and related that to decision making, project management and strategic planning. We looked at ouw emotionally intelligent we are and how we can boost our people skills – making up more effective team members and leaders. We learned how to be good listeners and manage our emotions.

Overall a very positive learning experience and one that we would recommend to our colleagues. Barcelona is a beautiful city, easy accessible on foot and with good public transport. There is so much to see and do and travelling with a colleague from work made it more enjoyable for us both.

Efficient & Effective Management for EU funded Projects – A masterclass Course

Report

By

Kaye Mullaney

This week-long course took place in Barcelona, Spain from Monday 30^TH July to Friday 3^rd August and which I attended as part of an Erasmus+ mobility. The tutor on the course was Dr. Efstratios Georgoudis.

I applied for this course to help me with the KA104 Application for Erasmus+ as I thought this would give me new ideas and benefit my organisation, Tipperary Education and Training Board, to prepare and submit a better application.

Overall, I enjoyed the course. The first day was a difficult start as I arrived early that morning to find a taxi strike – the city was in chaos and the heat was terrific! Not great for a freckly faced Irish cailin trying to find her way. The centre where the course ran was hard to find. The learning is to travel a day earlier for sure.

I met 19 other participants all from other countries in Europe and this sharing of how we work was the best part of the course. There was no social time arranged for coffee, lunch or trips and I felt this was a real shortfall of Shipcon’s organisation. One or two events would have helped build group cohesion and the benefit those who had travelled on their own.

I learned a lot about Grant Agreement terminology, what the EU is looking for in reporting, Technical Reports, Financial Reports and publicity obligations. The communication and dimmemination obligations became a lot clearer to me and I had time to process how we might in TETB go about this in a more structured way for our next applications. We also spent a lot of time on auditing and what might be needed for reports. I project led a team of 8 people to agree a proposal and to collate a file for our project. This was very useful, and it was challenging to manage the inter-cultural aspect of the group.