Nigerians urged to deepen conversation on emotional intelligence

Speakers at an event to commemorate the 2022 International Men’s Day, in Lagos recently, stated that those in leadership and the government need strong physical and emotional intelligence as it is very critical in decision making and actualizing tasks.

Speaking on the theme: “The Magic of Emotional Intelligence”, the CEO of Translantic Development Limited, Mr. Bankole Allibay, said the global business space requires more individuals than it has been over the years, hence, the need for people to reinvent themselves towards actualizing every task.

He argued that if the government deploys emotional intelligence correctly, it would help in reducing the level of crisis management currently being experienced in the country.

“There are decisions that will naturally mediate some issues from going out of control. This is something that we cannot do without: the internal energy, which actually breeds from emotional intelligence because the gap in that performance will actually be the gap in all areas – from the children, mentoring, to family, business, career and everything.

“So, emotional intelligence plays a central role in ensuring that we are able to stand firm to defeat all the crises and the issues that we need to manage going forward,” Allibay, who also works as a consultant to the World Bank, stated.

Also speaking, the head of marketing and communications at the EcoBank, Babajide Sipe, said it was important that people come together to reevaluate their position towards having real talk and deep conversations that would help men grow, develop and also inspire themselves.

“I think men also need to be celebrated; men have emotions too. A lot of those things that go through our minds as men is the reason why we are talking about emotional intelligence, and why we need to understand how to manage our emotions as men,” Sipe said.

Earlier, the convener of the programme, and author, ‘The Magic of Emotional Intelligence’, Dr. Abiola Salami, said the event was organised to increase the awareness on celebrating and inspiring men.

This is even as he urged men to always find a time to celebrate themselves as they are not adequately recognized as much as women in international celebrations.

“In our work in ‘Champ’ – Champ is 10 this year. However, for nine years out of those 10, we have been engaged in empowering and inspiring women but we discovered that for us to really build a gender balance society, we need to empower both side of the conversation,” Salami explained.

Speaking on his book, The Magic of Emotional Intelligence, the publisher of The Peak Performer Africa, said the book was written to equip people to continue to acquire the relevant leadership skill on emotional intelligence, and to democratize emotional intelligence and make it available to more people across the world.

“Leadership is not just about being in a position somewhere; every individual can be a leader. In fact, everybody is a leader as long as you have the responsibility to solve or care for people,” he said.

-vanguard