GSEM Alumni: Masterclass on Emotional Skills - an asset for professional success

The University of Geneva Alumni in Economics and Management held a new edition of their Masterclass series on Friday 9 June. The GSEM Alumni facilitates Masterclasses on relevant topics that are in line with our alumni’s experience and managerial needs.

The online event featured senior researcher in neuropsychology and lecturer Dr. Donald Glowinski, who presented the Masterclass titled “Emotional Skills: an asset for professional success”. Dr. Glowinski spoke about how moving from Emotional Intelligence to Emotional Competence can transform the potential of your intelligence into operational skills in the professional field, and mobilize one's expertise in a variety of positive or adverse situations. He also spoke about positive biases such as social conformity ("the right emotion"), the search for authenticity, emotional positivism, as well as negative biases such as unpredictability, loss of efficiency and productivity, the impression of weakness ("unreliable").

Dr. Donald Glowinski is a researcher in affective neuroscience and a change management practitioner. He directs the training program "Emotional Competencies in Professional Situations" at the Swiss Center For Affective Sciences (CISA) at the University of Geneva. He models the phenomena of organizational resilience of professionals in extreme situations, i.e., the communication strategies and interpersonal dynamics that make it possible to preserve the cohesion of a group subjected to disturbances. He works with companies and public institutions such as Google, Canton of Geneva, Hospice Général, Universcience, and the Menuhin Foundation.

This event brought together around 50 alumni for a friendly moment of enriching discussions.

In addition to the Masterclass series, the GSEM Alumni hosts “Mentoring Sessions”, which supports GSEM Bachelor and Master students in their professional and personal development, while strengthening the links between the current students and the GSEM alumni, and have recently launched the "ApéroConnect" program, which provides a new way for Alumni to connect and network.