Jun 8, 2026 · 24 min · 9 segments
In this episode of SkillCast, host Nurbanu Somani speaks with leadership expert and executive coach Dr. Emmanuel Dalavai about emotional intelligence, resilience, leadership, habit formation, and…
Emmanuel DalavaiGuest
Nurbanu SomaniHost
you've got there's so much positive energy to yourself and this really much i want to say someone that's really lived there been there and really keeps your composure so how is your wife from a similar background
She does a way, way better job of maintaining her emotions and composure than I do.
I tend to be, because I am so competitive and aggressive in sports and business and things, I tend to be a little bit more volatile from time to time.
I've had to train myself to be to emit that positive energy, to emit positive emotions, because that tends to have a ripple effect on other people.
There's this thing called, you may have heard of it, emotional contagion theory.
It's the theoretical framework from which we get misery loves company, right? But the opposite is true too.
It's why you probably heard the expression, sometimes people say smile and the world will smile back at you, right? I tell my clients sometimes if they have a hard time being positive, hey, all I want you to do for the next week is I want you to smile at as many people as possible that you meet.
And they do it and they're amazed because so many people will smile back at them and say hello and they start a conversation, right? So it's this spark plug, if you will, of positive emotions.
And I mean, I think the research bears out that principle too is that I think when we are more positive, when we are optimistic, I like to tell some of my clients, again, ones who struggle sometimes with being positive and trying to maintain a positive mental attitude, that your altitudinal position in life is really dependent on your attitudinal disposition.
So dependent on what type of attitude you have, right? It can determine the extent to which you are succeeding in life or not succeeding.
Who wants to be around people who are always complaining, who are miserable, who are giving off negative energy, right? You don't want to be around those people.
You don't invite them to go have a glass of wine or go to dinner or go hang out or go see a movie, right? Typically, they are the ones who are doing things on their own or they're finding others that they can be miserable with, right? I'm at a place in my life, I wanna surround myself with positive people and ones who emit positive energy.
Now, that's not always possible because life can be difficult and tragic and sad and you need to be able to emit those negative emotions or even the empathize with people, right? In their sadness and grief and things.
you've got there's so much positive energy to yourself and this really much i want to say someone that's really lived there been there and really keeps your composure so how is your wife from a similar background
She does a way, way better job of maintaining her emotions and composure than I do.
I tend to be, because I am so competitive and aggressive in sports and business and things, I tend to be a little bit more volatile from time to time.
I've had to train myself to be to emit that positive energy, to emit positive emotions, because that tends to have a ripple effect on other people.
There's this thing called, you may have heard of it, emotional contagion theory.
It's the theoretical framework from which we get misery loves company, right? But the opposite is true too.
It's why you probably heard the expression, sometimes people say smile and the world will smile back at you, right? I tell my clients sometimes if they have a hard time being positive, hey, all I want you to do for the next week is I want you to smile at as many people as possible that you meet.
And they do it and they're amazed because so many people will smile back at them and say hello and they start a conversation, right? So it's this spark plug, if you will, of positive emotions.
And I mean, I think the research bears out that principle too is that I think when we are more positive, when we are optimistic, I like to tell some of my clients, again, ones who struggle sometimes with being positive and trying to maintain a positive mental attitude, that your altitudinal position in life is really dependent on your attitudinal disposition.
So dependent on what type of attitude you have, right? It can determine the extent to which you are succeeding in life or not succeeding.
Who wants to be around people who are always complaining, who are miserable, who are giving off negative energy, right? You don't want to be around those people.
You don't invite them to go have a glass of wine or go to dinner or go hang out or go see a movie, right? Typically, they are the ones who are doing things on their own or they're finding others that they can be miserable with, right? I'm at a place in my life, I wanna surround myself with positive people and ones who emit positive energy.
Now, that's not always possible because life can be difficult and tragic and sad and you need to be able to emit those negative emotions or even the empathize with people, right? In their sadness and grief and things.
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