Applying Emotional Intelligence to De-Escalation
Building Public Trust
Applying Emotional Intelligence to De-Escalation
Growing evidence suggests emotional intelligence (EQ) is a factor in predicting work performance that involves regular interpersonal contact with people—the cornerstone of the law enforcement profession. Emotions are central in every relationship aspect our lives, including family, friendships, and the workplace. Managed proactively and effectively, emotions can guide and direct our thinking to include actions that are realistic and appropriate—even saving our lives. Unmanaged, emotions can “hijack” reasoning and logic, contributing to responses we may subsequently regret. Unmanaged, they may also derail efforts to successfully de-escalate and defuse potential life-threatening interactions with disenfranchised citizens.
To more effectively protect and serve the public, law enforcement officers have an obligation to learn to appropriately monitor their own and other’s emotions and use this knowledge to guide their thinking, actions, and decision making.
This course is about law enforcement officers understanding what tools are at their disposal to combat the current social contempt toward policing, applying emotional intelligence concepts in concert with de-escalation skills for conflict management. This course will provide pre-recorded lectures on Emotional Intelligence, Duty to Interpose and De-Escalation to enhance to enhance and support a service culture and provide de-escalation techniques so as to reduce public criticism and judgement of law enforcement. The workshop will include the Saboteurs, DISC and EQ-i 2.0 assessment tools to increase self-awareness, understanding and control.
Upon completing the course, each participant will:
- be presented a “big picture” overview of Emotional Intelligence.
- be able to evaluate and justify the mission critical importance of emotional intelligence in a profession full of emotions/feeling such as law enforcement.
- take the EQi-2.0 to understand the subscales they believe to be their strongest and weakest.
- learn the Dynamic of Authority and Duty to Interpose the role of Positive Emotional Intelligence for effective performance and well-being.
- be able to distinguish factors that play a critical role in the application of de-escalation techniques in crisis and conflict situations.
- be able to explain the significance of the amygdala—the body’s “anxiety switch” using individual examples observed over their own work experience.
- be able to identify the emotional intelligence components that contribute to the data gathering phase necessary for effective de-escalation.
- recognize how to perform an emotional intelligence audit, asking strategic questions to better conduct de-escalation techniques.