SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ – It’s no secret Silicon Valley tech companies are great at hiring the brightest, most tech-savvy employees to come up with the next big thing. But increasingly, they are finding that being tech savvy doesn’t always mean good people skills. Now they are acting on research that suggests emotional intelligence (EQ) is an even greater predictor of effective leadership.  The week of March 16-20th, coaches working with Zappos, Facebook, and Google will be presenting at Six Seconds’ 4th Annual Vitality emotional intelligence conference and talking about these company’s initiatives to improve the people skills in their organizations.

As Rich Hazeltine, Sr. Manager of Tech University @ Zappos, IP Inc., says: “In the tech sector, and probably everywhere, the ‘secret’ ingredient to great leadership is connecting with people.  I teach emotional intelligence because it’s the skillset that enables managers to actually lead.”

Experts in emotional intelligence have teamed up with major companies to learn how they can enhance employee engagement and organizational vitality. This five day online conference offers real-time interaction with leaders and innovators in business, science, education, and psychology.

The topics include using emotional intelligence to build teams and effective organizations, increase employee loyalty and retention, and improve overall success. Other topics include building safe schools and helping reconnect youth to their communities.

Presented by Six Seconds, one of the oldest and largest organizations teaching emotional intelligence (EQ), this highly interactive event will feature over 75 webinars with leading thinkers in the field. It is free and open to anyone with a computer and internet connection. Last year’s online conference featured 20,000 discreet sign ups by participants.

Sessions from the tech sector include:

On Monday March 16, at 2:00 pm PDT, certified Coach Robert Chender will demonstrate the Search Inside Yourself (SIY) science-based mindfulness curriculum designed and tested at Google.

On Tuesday March 17, 9:00am PDT, Marcy Strauss Axelrod, a former strategy management consultant for Hewlett-Packard, will share a case study showing how emotional intelligence helped a tech company increase global sales.

On Wednesday, March 18, at 3:00 pm PDT, Rich Hazeltine, Sr. Manager of Tech University at Zappos, IP Inc. will address what kinds of leadership skills are needed for technical experts to be leaders of people.

On Thursday March 19 at 2:00 pm PDT, Arturo Bejar, director of engineering for the Facebook Protect and Care team will talk about his work developing tools to help Facebook users be more empathetic in their online communications. He has focused especially on teen Facebook users to combat cyberbullying.

Later that day at 7:00 pm PDT, Jeanine Becker will share best practices for leaders to build collaboration.  Becker, who was a Silicon Valley corporate lawyer, now works with companies such as Cisco to build leadership that creates impact through people.

With so many global conflicts making headlines, it could be argued that increasing emotional intelligence is necessary for survival. Six Seconds provides tools which enable people and institutions to leverage the power of emotions to create positive change.

Six Seconds is a global network supporting people to create positive change – everywhere, all the time. Our vision is a billion people practicing the skills of emotional intelligence worldwide. Founded in 1997, Six Seconds is the first and largest organization 100% dedicated to the development of emotional intelligence.   We have offices and representatives in over 25 countries.