The best free emotional intelligence courses are Managing Emotions Under Uncertainty and Stress, How Emotions Influence Us, The Science of Well-being, and Mindshift. Each of these courses offers an interactive and informative experience in learning how to build emotional intelligence.
For those looking to develop their emotional intelligence, there are several great courses available, including Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress, Emotional and Social Intelligence, Teacher Social-Emotional Learning Specialization, and Emotions Across Cultures. Each offers a different perspective on the importance of emotional intelligence and practical strategies to strengthen it.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, use, and manage emotions in positive ways to communicate effectively, empathize with others, and overcome challenges. Emotional intelligence is important because it helps you achieve your personal and career goals while fostering strong relationships with others and a deep sense of satisfaction with your life.
In business, emotional intelligence is important in developing the interpersonal skills that can help you excel in group collaboration. Attributes such as empathy and active listening can help communication between leadership and employees for peaceful conflict resolution and compassionate change management.
On a personal level, emotional intelligence can encourage the mindfulness needed to achieve the states of gratitude and happiness shown by positive psychology to be so important to thrive in our lives.
Emotional intelligence underlies the ability of people to work effectively in teams while creating meaningful change regardless of their industry or institution. These skills will thus serve you in any career you choose, but will especially benefit managers and team leaders as it enhances the ability to guide others in a way that leaves them feeling empowered and accomplished. These gentle, nurturing skills also serve those in career counseling, family therapy, and health education.
Social workers need an especially high level of emotional intelligence to help people solve problems in their everyday lives. They help people with mental health or substance abuse issues in outpatient facilities, as well as educate and advocate for disenfranchised groups. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, social workers earn a median income of $50,470 per year, and these jobs are expected to grow by 11% overall through 2028 - including 17% growth in jobs for healthcare social workers specifically. ,
Many social work careers can begin with only a bachelor’s degree; however, clinical social workers need to have a master’s degree, two years of supervised clinical experience, and be licensed by their state.
Yes! Coursera has a wide variety of online courses and Specializations in emotional intelligence, including topics in leadership and positive psychology. These courses are offered through top-ranked institutions from around the world, including Case Western Reserve University, the University of California, Davis, and the Indian School of Business, so you don’t have to sacrifice the quality of your education to learn remotely. And, thanks to virtual office hours and collaborative projects, you will still get to build relationships and develop the interpersonal skills at the core of emotional intelligence.
The skills and experience you may need to already have before learning about emotional intelligence can include the ability and willingness to empathize with others, whether you come from an education, social work, healthcare, or corporate setting. Learning about emotional intelligence can help you build on an already strong foundation of service and caring for others. The additional critical skills you can acquire from learning about emotional intelligence, such as analytical thinking and problem solving, can be vital assets in numerous workplace and organizational settings. Also, what was once considered to be soft skills are now essential skills for the modern workplace that values an understanding of emotional intelligence. Some of those skills include having the ability to self-regulate and self-manage your thoughts, pause before speaking, benefit from criticism, respond with authenticity, demonstrate empathy towards others, develop social awareness of your surroundings, keep your commitments, and offer beneficial feedback to others.
The kind of person who is best suited to learn about emotional intelligence might be someone who wants to be more prepared for a leadership and management role in their personal and professional life. Learning about emotional intelligence can help you acquire resources and ideas that can keep you and others resilient during times of heightened stress and uncertainty. The study of emotional intelligence includes learning about the basic foundations of psychology. If you are interested in the scientific study of thought and behavior, you may be well-suited to understanding just how the cutting-edge research on emotional intelligence can foster meaningful change, develop growth mindsets, and develop cooperative relationships in your personal and professional life.
Learning about emotional intelligence might be right for you if you want to learn how to react better in stressful situations at work, at home, and in all types of social circumstances. If you want to hear about how front-line leaders in today’s workplace are using ideas from emotional intelligence theory to distinguish themselves as leaders, learning about the topic may be right for you. For example, understanding emotional intelligence can help you to deal better with challenging relationships in all areas of your life. It can help you to give and receive feedback in more helpful ways. Learning about emotional intelligence can also help you to become more resilient as you work through setbacks and failures in your life.