Monash Career Peer (MCP) soft skills workshop brought along with it a plethora of sage advice, guidelines as to how to learn to be a better human being not only in the workforce but just in your everyday life as well, along with thought-provoking entrepreneurial discussions. Our speaker for the second day of the seminar was Miss Esther Yap, who is the founder and CEO of Stellar SparX International. She has extensive experience in leadership and people development, as well as over 15 years of Corporate Preneur Experiences in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. 

After being introduced, she started off the seminar talking about the importance of emotional intelligence and how pertinent it is to have it in regards to being in a working environment; it is the hallmark of being a good teammate and a good leader. It also ties in with our communication and teamwork skills as it helps us to understand other people better and gain empathy.

She discussed how to apply Law of Awareness to recognize your communication strengths and limitations, how to understand how others’ viewpoints and how to work with differing personalities in the workplace. She talked about how to move from ‘me’ to ‘we’ team: through communicating and appreciating the styles of others and working well together. 

Next, she talked about various other ‘quotients’ a person can inhabit – SQ (social quotient) which means having social awareness and AQ (adversity quotient) which deals with how you respond to challenges, among many others. “Empathy can only be communicated properly if you CAN communicate it properly,” she said about having a high enough EQ. She also used a volcano analogy – how if you’re not able to effectively manage high feelings and if you don’t have a sufficient EQ, your feelings and emotions will bottle up and eventually implode, consequently damaging your relationships and career opportunities. Therefore, it is crucial to exercise your emotional intelligence as it is a fundamental thing to master. Throughout her talk, she included many interactive sessions through which participants could offer their own insights in regards to the topics being discussed, which allowed the listeners to integrate the material in a more comprehensive manner.

After a break, she talked about the Maxwell Method of D.I.S.C., which is a tool for improving emotional intelligence of any individuals and teams at any workplace, with the aim of improving communications and increasing team productivity. It guides the application of it for continuous professional and leadership development. For example, D archetypes are dominant and determined, I types are influencing and inspirational, C types are competent and conscientious, S types are stable and secure and so on. This tool, Ms. Esther said, is vital for improving productivity and harmony on a professional level. At the end of each workshop, Ms. Esther held a QnA session where participants got to inquire her about their personal experiences, which was followed by a lucky draw and winner announcement. 

Ultimately, the goal of this seminar was to guide the participants in improving and growing their inner lives and their emotional worlds, as well as urging them to be cognizant of their productivity types which will then in turn be fruitful and prolific when it comes to their careers.

Written by Sreana Habiba