Emotional Intelligence Pioneer, Joshua Freedman on ”Getting Results with Emotional Intelligence in Our Schools and Workplaces.”

“We teach what we most need to learn” Joshua Freedman Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/xE0F0l9tbqo Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #202, with someone I’ve been wanting to speak with since the early days of launching our podcast. He’s a specialist on emotional intelligence, with connections that link him to Daniel Goleman’s[i]  earliest work, as the CEO and one of the co-founders of Six Seconds[ii], the global community growing emotional intelligence that began in 1997, around the time I had my AHA Moment and realized how important these skills are for our students in the classroom. He’s an educator, author of 5 books, researcher and parent, who translates the latest neuroscience of emotion into practical insights we can all use to connect, solve problems, lead, and live better lives. On this episode you will learn: ✔︎  What led Joshua Freedman, one of the leading experts of emotional intelligence in our schools and workplaces, to discover the SEL/Neuroscience connection in the late 1990s. ✔︎ How the 6Seconds.org SEL Model is different than ALL other models and why EVERYONE working with SEL must see this model. ✔︎ A simple 3 step approach to implement emotional intelligence in our lives, as well as our students in the classroom, or in the workplace. ✔︎ How to use our emotions as a guidance system and what to be aware of with certain emotions (like trust). ✔︎ How to get involved with 6Seconds.org with their FREE SEL resources, assessments, programs and services.  Before I introduce you to this week’s guest, I’ve got to say that for someone who has spearheaded the movement of EQ in our schools and workplaces for over 3 decades, his humble and kind nature will show you that he practices what he teaches. Welcome back.  I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding and applying the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their books, resources, and ideas to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment. Let’s get right into this topic, and meet this week’s guest, Joshua Freedman, the CEO of 6 Seconds, and dive into the field of emotional intelligence in our schools, sports and workplace environments. I know that after these questions, we will all look at “emotional intelligence” with a new lens. Welcome Joshua, it’s wonderful to meet you after all the years I’ve followed your work. Joshua, I don’t know if you know this, (or remember) as I know that you do many of these interviews, but when we first launched this podcast, I did reach out to you, and even had a spot on your calendar. You are the only interview to date that I wrote the week of, and said I needed more time to research you, because I didn’t feel fully prepared for the interview. Do you remember this by chance? What happened—I usually read each person’s book and come up with some questions on how their work applies to the field of SEL and neuroscience, but when I began to research you, I saw that where your work began, and realized I needed to think about your questions as one of the leaders behind the movement of this field of emotional intelligence, to bring more meaning to today’s discussion and make sure I didn’t leave anything out. A sincere thank you for speaking with me today and letting me thoroughly prepare the questions for you so we can go deep into this topic of how to get results with emotional intelligence. INTRO QUESTION: While researching your background, Joshua, I listened to some of your interviews[iii], and was surprised to see that your introduction to this field came in a similar way to mine. We were both first year teac