With quotas to reach, revenue to make, and quarterly goals to hit, growing a business can often feel like a cut-and-dry numbers game. Yet research shows that emotional intelligence skills — the ability to express one’s own and gauge other’s emotions — are increasingly a must-have skill for the workforce.  Understanding the real meaning and impact of soft skills in the workplace can be hard to grasp. That’s why we kicked off this season of Working Lunch, our weekly show on all things business and video, to better understand emotional intelligence and why it matters. In this week’s episode, we sat down with Michael Judeh, Regional Director of Technology at Convene, to pick his technical brain about the importance of the human element in tech.     After following a non-traditional path into production services himself, Michael understands first-hand how social skills can benefit one’s career. In his view (and others’), an employee who exhibits emotional intelligence skills to navigate conversations, communicate technical jargon in layman’s terms, and build trust with clients is incredibly valuable. Of course, that’s not to say that technical skills aren’t important, but rather they can build over time with mentorship and hands-on experience. Which is why Inc. reports that 90% of employers say they are open to accepting non-traditional candidates. Tune in to our on-demand recording to learn:

• Why nurturing soft skills from Day 1 is critical for a healthy company culture
• How to gauge emotional intelligence skills during interviews
• Advice for balancing technical know-how with social and emotional skills

  Remember, you can catch future episodes of Working Lunch on the Vimeo Enterprise LinkedIn page every Wednesday at 2 PM ET, and find all episodes of Working Lunch on our Showcase page.