From Campus to CorporationA Chicago School of Professional Psychology program trains psychologists to increase business leaders' emotional intelligence skills.
by Erika Packard It's not unusual for psychologists to assess potential hires, coach executives and consult on organizational development. It's less commonplace for them to teach communication skills to business leaders, who then teach them to their employees in an effort to improve corporate climate. But that's exactly what the Chicago School of Professional Psychology is preparing students to do in its pilot training program, Peer Development for Emotional Intelligence (PdEI). Student participants meet monthly for two years to learn listening and leadership skills based on emotional intelligence research. "The goal is to increase people's EI skills and give them the skills and knowledge to train and develop emotional intelligence in other people," says Steven Nakisher, PsyD, a psychology practitioner and Chicago School alumnus who's leading the pilot program. The Chicago School is the first psychology program to test PdEI, but the program has already been used with 81 executives at such corporations as Hyatt Hotels, First Midwest Bank and Leo Burnett. In addition, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Boston and Rutgers Universities are conducting a randomized, controlled study of PdEI's effects on corporate promotions and salary increases that involves 162 participants and more than 500 raters. Other pilot programs are under way with Chicago public school principals and UIC physicians and second-year medical students. The Chicago School is only halfway through its two-year training program, but the school plans to expand it next year based on positive student feedback. The program equips them to move beyond the traditional clinician role, says the school's president Michael Horowitz, PhD. "Psychologists are uniquely qualified to get these practices started in organizations because of our training in listening skills and organizational dynamics," he says. "It's an opportunity for psychologists to be seen as consultants who launch things for other people who go on to have their own successes." |
