The world is changing and the way we manage ourselves in our workplace is changing. Even the concept of intelligence or competence has changed. This has affected the working world, independently of the field we are referring to. Entrepreneurs, executives, managers and workers in general are obliged to develop new skills and strategies for a new market. Here is the place for Emotional Intelligence (EI), and extra weapon to keep the levels of employability, but also the standards of quality and production in a new economic and social scenario. In years past, the EI of employees was low on the list of qualifications, especially for leaders. However, with the way that the market has changed, how someone connects with others on an emotional level is becoming much more important. Company leaders need to understand the emotional connection audiences have with services, products and companies as a whole. In this context, DISAWORK project aims at providing high quality management in emotional skills to European entrepreneurs, managers and SME, as well as their workers and employees. IE has application in multiple productive sectors, always focused in the improvement of results of persons and organizations, from a personal or professional point of view. One of those fields of development is the workplace and its applications to employability in a society exposed to constant changes. This is a mayor focus point in the European Union, with an average unemployment rate of 6.8% (Eurostat, August 2018) which goes up over 15% in countries as Spain or Greece, and averages rates close to 20% in youth unemployment (up to 38% and 32% in the mentioned Mediterranean countries). Because every day we make emotionally charged decisions. We feel plan A is better than plan B and we sometimes make choices based on our emotions or gut feelings. When we understand the origin and source of these emotions, especially when working in a team, we are more at attuned to each other. With globalization, emotional intelligence is more significant than ever when teams are cross-cultural and global, increasing the complexity of interactions of emotions and how they are expressed. Essentially, emotional intelligence in the workplaces comes down to understanding, expressing and managing, good relationships and solving problems under pressure. The project consortium is composed of 6 organisations from 5 different EU countries (GR, SP, AUT, RO and IT) in a comprehensive partnership under the coordination of InterMediaKT, consisting of a solid group of training companies with long international experience in the application of Emotional Intelligence in their programs and a high demand of this kind of formation: CPIP (Romania), CESIE (Italy), and GROWTHCOOP (Spain). VAEV (Austria) will add its wide range of contacts with Austrian companies and organizations, while INDEPCIE (Spain) is a training company specialized in coaching and EI, which will add a plus of expertise to the program. To achieve the objectives of the project three Intellectual Outputs will be developed, tested and multiplied: ‘EMOJOBS’ (O1) will select 10 basic emotional skills in the workplace and as a self-evaluation tool will act as umbrella for the ‘EIW. Online training in Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace’ (O2), the real core of the project focused both on managers and employees, paying attention to different needs and implications. The online system will also feature a platform for interactions between learners, facilitators, mentors and mentees, and other stakeholders. All outputs produced will be freely accessible for the public within and beyond the project’s lifetime. O3 (‘EMOTIONS FOR SUCCESS’) will close the project with a selection of best practices case studies in the emotional management of selected companies. By creating training tools for improving emotional intelligence skills of entrepreneurs, managers and employees, the consortium expects to achieve the overall objective of the project: highlight the importance of Emotional Intelligence skills in the new economic environment and globalised world. The project wishes to set new tools and methodologies to support start-ups and SMEs in whatever sector in enhancing their productivity, competiveness and efficiency. The consortium will use the outcomes of the project, exploiting them with different targets, in further initiatives of the same topic, disseminating them through all its channels and applying them in its internal working dynamics. Companies, teams and organizations involved in an emotional training are expected to show a high increase of positive work environment, team work, talent development, productivity, creativity and innovation. Moreover, and in a lower and extensive level, final customers of those companies will be direct beneficiaries (summarizing, the base of European citizens) will enjoy of a healthy emotional environment in their daily contact to all the actors involved in the project.
This is how DISAWORK came to life, to show the importance of the application of EI tools and strategies for entrepreneurs, leaders and SME in order to improve productivity, reinforce stability in the companies and, as a result, to benefit the level and quality of employability. But emotional intelligence is not something just for CEOs and managers. It's a key factor at every level of a person's career, including those low-skilled who have never paid attention to the emotional aspects in the workplace. DISAWORK is double focused, on managers and employees reaching all the actors in the productive process, and to achieve this, the DISAWORK project pursues the following objectives: • Examine the level of managers' EI in SME. • Promote Emotional Intelligence for entrepreneurship • Identify the ability to manage EI skills according to organizational climate and employees' creativity. • Promote Social Responsibility among entrepreneurs by applying EI • Detect dangers and opportunities of those emotions in the productive process. • Make workers participants of a better management of their own emotions.
DISAWORK started with the following hypotheses: The more technology we have, the more we automate tasks and trust machines to take over duties, the more we realize the importance of emotions. The world is changing, the way we work and the way we manage our workers (and even ourselves in our workplace) is changing. Even the concept of intelligence or competence has changed. Obviously, this has affected the working world, independently of the field we are referring to. Entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and workers feel the obligation to develop new skills and strategies for a new market. So, DISAWORK supports that here is the place for Emotional Intelligence (EI) and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) to keep the levels of employability, but also, the standards of quality in a new economic and social scenario. As the workplace continues to evolve, making room for new technologies and innovations, these qualities have become increasingly important. It is vital for managers and other business leaders to operate in emotionally intelligent ways to meet the needs of today’s workers.