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Quick Look Course Summary:Mastering Emotional Intelligence (2 days)
  • Length: 2 day(s)

  • Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 10,326 EX VAT 3 Person R 7,594 EX VAT 10 Person R 5,537 EX VAT

  • Certification Type:Non-Accredited

  • Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.

Also available as e-learning

Emotional Intelligence – self-paced online, 6 months’ access: R750 per learner (ex VAT); teams of 10 or more pay less.

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    Mastering Emotional Intelligence (2 days)

    Delegates manage their own reactions under pressure and read and respond to others in ways that build trust and get the work done.

    Most workplace friction is not a skills gap but an emotional one: people misread each other, take feedback personally or let pressure spill into how they speak to colleagues and customers. This two-day emotional intelligence training builds the skills in the order they develop – first understanding and managing yourself, then reading and working well with others.

    Day one covers self-awareness and self-management: what emotional intelligence is and why it can be learned, recognising your own emotions and triggers, regulating your reactions under pressure, communicating with awareness and making a positive impact, ending with a personal emotional intelligence audit. Day two applies it to relationships: reading people and the room, empathy, building trust and influence, emotional intelligence in leadership and teams, holding difficult conversations, and managing stress and resilience in a diverse South African workplace.

    Delegates practise throughout in pairs and small groups, revisit their baseline self-assessment at the end and leave with a 90-day personal development plan. The course can be tailored to a management group or to a whole team.

    Why this course

    For your organisation

    • Fewer conflicts caused by misread emotions and poor communication
    • Managers who coach and give feedback without damaging relationships
    • Calmer handling of difficult customers and colleagues
    • Teams where people feel safe to speak up
    • More resilience through change and pressure

    For your delegates

    • A baseline self-assessment and a personal emotional intelligence audit
    • Practical tools to stay composed under pressure
    • Confidence to hold difficult conversations
    • A 90-day personal development plan

    What delegates will be able to do

    • Explain the four domains of emotional intelligence and why it can be developed
    • Recognise your own emotions, triggers and patterns as they happen
    • Regulate your reactions using pausing, reframing and coping techniques
    • Give and receive feedback in an emotionally intelligent way
    • Read emotions in others from words, tone and body language
    • Build trust, rapport and influence with colleagues, customers and managers
    • Prepare for and hold a difficult conversation calmly
    • Recognise stress in yourself and your team and build resilience
    • Assess your own emotional intelligence and set development goals

    Who should attend

    Managers, team leaders and supervisors, emerging leaders, customer-facing and client service staff, HR and people professionals, and any employee whose role depends on self-control, clear communication and working well with others.

    Course outline

    Day 1 – Understanding and managing yourself

    What emotional intelligence is
    • Why emotional intelligence matters in work and personal relationships
    • The four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management
    • Four abilities: perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions
    • Why emotional intelligence can be learned
    • Course objectives and a baseline self-assessment
    Self-awareness
    • Self-confidence, self-esteem and locus of control
    • Recognising your own emotions as they happen
    • Identifying personal triggers and patterns
    • Your strengths and development areas
    • How others experience you: asking for honest feedback
    Self-management and emotion regulation
    • Regulation tools: coping thoughts, relaxation and reframing
    • Pausing before reacting
    • Managing emotions at work and disagreeing constructively
    • Optimism, pessimism and keeping balance
    • Motivation and bouncing back from setbacks
    Emotionally intelligent communication
    • Focused listening and questioning
    • Authentic, flexible verbal communication
    • Body language, tone and delivery
    • Naming what you feel, appropriately
    • Giving and receiving feedback with emotional intelligence
    Making an impact
    • First impressions and presence
    • Reading a situation before responding
    • Appropriate enthusiasm and energy
    • Handling criticism without becoming defensive
    Personal emotional intelligence audit
    • Analysing your responses to recent work situations
    • The positive and negative effects of your emotional intelligence on yourself and others
    • Techniques for raising your own emotional intelligence
    • Setting personal goals for day two

    Day 2 – Understanding and working with others

    Social awareness: reading others
    • Recognising emotions in others from words, tone and body language
    • Empathy: cognitive, emotional and compassionate
    • Reading the room and the mood of a team
    • Organisational awareness: power, politics and unwritten rules
    • Practice: reading a scenario and choosing a response
    Empathy and relationship management
    • Building trust and rapport with colleagues, customers and managers
    • Influencing without authority
    • Managing up and across
    • Collaboration under pressure
    • Repairing a working relationship after it goes wrong
    Emotional intelligence in leadership and teams
    • How leaders set the emotional tone of a team
    • Coaching rather than commanding
    • Psychological safety: making it safe to speak up
    • Recognising and developing talent
    • Applying emotional intelligence in your own department or team
    Difficult conversations
    • Why we avoid difficult conversations and what it costs
    • Preparing: intent, facts and feelings
    • Structuring the conversation and staying in control of yourself
    • Handling strong emotions in the other person
    • Practice conversations with feedback
    Stress, resilience and diversity
    • Recognising stress in yourself and your team
    • Building personal resilience and supporting others
    • Emotional intelligence across culture, language, generation and hierarchy
    • Managing emotions through change and uncertainty
    • Spotting when a colleague needs more support than you can give
    Personal development plan and close
    • Revisiting the baseline self-assessment
    • A 90-day personal development plan
    • Accountability partners and follow-up
    • Key learnings and evaluation

    How it is delivered

    Two days, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20; scenarios tailored to your team on request. Workbook, self-assessment and a 90-day development plan included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.

    Certificate: Delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. This is a non-accredited short course; the training spend may count towards your B-BBEE skills development – check with your verification agency.

    What our clients say

    ★★★★★ 4.8 on Google from 770+ reviews · word-for-word quotes from signed letters of reference, from clients on this and/or related BOTI courses

    “The courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training with average overall scores of 5 out of 5.”

    A food manufacturerHR Manager · Course: Emotional Intelligence Course · 2022

    “The training was practical, engaging and relevant to our workplace environment, providing participants with valuable knowledge and practical skills that could be applied in their respective roles.”

    A cosmetics manufacturerHR Department · Course: Emotional Intelligence Training · 2026

    “The course was efficiently organized and aligned with our schedule. We were impressed by the quality of the training and the expertise of the facilitator.”

    A national regulator of the auditing professionProcurement Specialist · Course: Emotional Intelligence & Personal Mastery training · 2026

    Read what our clients say

    Frequently asked questions

    Can you run this course at our offices?

    Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa; we can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online.

    How many people can attend?

    From one delegate to groups of about 20. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table, or ask us for a quote.

    Is it accredited?

    No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.

    Is there a one-day version?

    Yes. Mastering Emotional Intelligence (1 day) is a compact introduction to the core skills. The two-day course adds a full personal audit, leadership and team application, difficult conversations and resilience, with much more time for practice.

    Do delegates complete a psychometric test?

    The course uses a practical self-assessment, not a licensed psychometric instrument. If your organisation already uses an emotional intelligence assessment, the facilitator can build the results into the course.

    Can it be tailored for managers or for a service team?

    Yes. For managers we weight day two towards leadership and difficult conversations; for customer-facing teams we use service scenarios and difficult-customer practice.

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