On October 22, the  Women In Big Data West Coast/ Bay Area chapter held another very successful workshop, “Coaching Others to Manage Workplace Emotions.”

The event was hosted at BNY Mellon Silicon Valley Innovation Center and organized by Women in Big Data Forum leadership team member Stella Mashkevitch. Our “WiBD instructor of the year” in 2017, Bob Loftis, of NowForward Coaching, taught this very useful soft skills workshop.

More than 25 members of the Women in Big Data Forum discussed ways of preparing for unexpected emotional outpourings at work. Using various demonstrations and pair exercises, Bob showed how to use a coaching approach to help others manage their issues. A key area of focus was on how to express emotions in positive manner, as opposed to simply venting (which tends to be at our expense!).

Participants practiced identifying their own needs and discovering how their own stories that can get in the way in the workplace. They also looked at how using empowering language can help, and they learned how to apply useful techniques when interacting with someone who is very upset.

Joy Peacock of BNYM was an awesome demo collaborator! Joy and  Bob demonstrated a number of emotional workplace situations that were very familiar to everyone in the room. Participants then discussed the situations through the lens of their own experience and discussed possible ways to deal with the emotions those situations brought to the surface.

Overall, it was a wonderful and very informative evening. Thank you to Joy for a being a warm and inviting host! And, a huge shout out to Bob for another great workshop!