Emotional Intelligence with Joy Chowdhury

On June 2nd, 2025, Embark College hosted a meaningful and informative event as a part of its “ Mental Health and Wellness Week” under its remarkable “The Better You Series”. The session, titled “Emotional Intelligence: Understand How Mastering Your Emotions Helps You Make Better Decisions, Manage Conflict, and Build Stronger Teams”, brought in a diverse range of audience who were ready to embark on their personal journey of mastering their emotions. Held from 6 pm to 7 pm, the keynote speaker, Joy Chowdhury, CEO of Kairos Learning Universe and a veteran of the Learning and Development industry, provided the listeners a contrasting perspective on Emotional Intelligence (EI) that challenged their pre-existing notions on the subject. His engaging delivery, distinct insight on the subject equipped the attendees with knowledge to enhance their emotional intelligence in both personal and professional spheres.

Emotional Intelligence, often described as the ability to detect, decipher, and dominion one’s emotions along with empathizing with others, has become an indispensable skill in the modern world. Joy Chowdhury highlighted how having a solid grasp on emotional intelligence can lead to better decision-making, a point that resonated deeply with the audience, most of whom were students and young professionals navigating high-stress environments where emotional intelligence is crucial to thrive. “ Emotions are data”, Chowdhury stated,” and learning to interpret that data wisely can be a game-changer in how we approach challenges and opportunities”.

The session was framed to provide theoretical epiphanies and a call to action to apply them strategically in practical life situations.Chowdhury focused on the five key components of emotional intelligence—self-awareness,self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills using real world scenarios along with fascinating story telling to illustrate how they can be applied. For instance, he shared an example of how a corporate leader assimilating emotional intelligence can benefit the workers and the company which instilled a sense of importance with regards to emotional intelligence among the attendees aspiring to take on such responsibilities.

One of the stand-out segments of the evening  was Chowdhury’s focus on conflict management. He clarified the fact that being equipped with Emotional Intelligence helps an individual to handle conflicts with a solution mindset rather than reacting hastily. He guided the audience through a practical exercise asking them to think of a recent conflict that they had and critically analyse how their emotional state of mind influenced the situation. This assisted the audience to ascribe the concept and immediately resonate it with their own lives.

Chowdhury also stressed on the importance of Emotional Intelligence to build stronger and more resilient teams. He highlighted the fact that in order to cultivate a thriving team, members need to feel seen, valued, understood and validated which requires leaders to foster empathy and effective communication.

He talked about techniques to constructively criticize team members, elaborating on the fact that criticism should be strictly restricted to their behaviours and not to their personal attributes. He further emphasized on empathy and urged the attendees to put themselves in their colleague’s shoes.

The event wasn’t just limited to professional growth; Chowdhury also elaborated how emotional intelligence helps an individual to keep their mental-well being intact and explained how self-regulation can prevent stress and avoid burnout. He urged the attendees to practice daily mindful habits such as journaling which helps them to develop mental resilience over time.

The setting at Embark College added to the event’s impact through its warmly lit venue and a seamless experience through timely arrangements. The audience comprised of students, industry professionals, educators and passionate learners who were absorbing all that was being said and were asking critical and insightful questions during the QnA session.One attendee- a first year student asked about the how to balance emotional expression with professionalism in academic group

projects. Genuineness along with self-boundaries was what Chowdhury replied with, which left the audience nodding in agreement.

As things came to a close, Chowdhury pointed out that there is no single target in emotional intelligence; it is an ongoing effort of learning, forgetting and relearning. It was a big success and gave us useful advice. Among the things people took away from the session was an invitation to change their habits and thus improve themselves, their teams and their roles as leaders. The Better You series keeps inspiring people and this conversation with Joy Chowdhury will be a memorable part of Mental Health and Wellness Week.