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JIMINY SELF-HELP HANDBOOK 28

3. EXERCISES AND QUIZZES

3.1. Exercise 1
The following is a quiz related to Social Awareness by Anthony Mersino, the author of “Emotional
Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Results,” and
modified by Dr. Alan Zimmerman to be applied more generally.

Trainees/learners need to go through the questions and answer “yes” or “no” to each question.

• Do you use sarcasm in your communications with team members, coworkers, customers or
other project stakeholders?
• Do you frequently say “yes” to action items in meetings or agree to take on work … and then
regret it later?
• Do you feel the need to crack a joke or change the subject during tough conversations?
• Do you find it easier to set the record straight or vent your frustration in an e-mail rather than
in person?
• Are your relationships with your team members and team leaders superficial and limited to
the task at hand?
• Do you get upset or take it personally when your boss or team leader is angry?
• Do you ever find yourself dwelling on conflict with your team members or fantasizing about
ways to get even?
• Do you wish you were more charismatic or had more presence as a team leader or manager?
A rule of thumb for the above could be that if they answered “yes” to three or more questions, the
most probably need to work on Social Awareness & Management skills. With this and many other
quizzes, exercises and tools used by the sector, it is also useful to ask these questions to five people at
home or work (although it could be painful to hear the answers) that know the learners very well so
they will too answer the questions for them.