How Crucial Conversations ties into Emotional Intelligence
I thoroughly enjoyed the Coursera course "Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence", and I would also recommend reading "Crucial Conversations", which addresses high risk, high stakes conversations where people have differing opinions and emotions can run high. This book details how these types of conversations, without awareness and training, can pull us into fight or flight (silence or violence) responses - perfectly appropriate if you're about to be run over by car, but not appropriate for navigating through a high risk, high stakes, emotional conversation in a rational and compassionate manner. The book covers techniques and approaches to help establish parameters beforehand for how to conduct a crucial conversation, such that it becomes safe for all participants involved.
Years ago when I first discovered the book, I was one of the earliest to attend what became required Crucial Conversations workshops for all managers, developers and architects at one company. I've wondered since how many companies have adopted this policy, because I think this is one of the best ways to cultivate emotional intelligence in the workplace.