Are you sometimes displeased with the way you handle situations? Are there certain people or situations that “set you off?” Do you feel like stress is taking you over at certain times, and you are not managing your reactions well? Well, have you stopped to consider your emotional intelligence? This is an area of life that should be developed, and there are some good reasons for doing it and ways to go about developing those skills.
Emotional intelligence can be viewed as an approach to drama in any relationship, whether that is personal or executive. According to Teresa Quinlan, “Emotional intelligence is growing your capacity to understand your emotions and use that information to be more effective.” While intelligence, personality, and other traits may be somewhat static, emotional intelligence involves learnable skills so it can be developed at any age as long as you have a growth mindset.
This intelligence has various components, but they basically include looking at yourself and your relationships with others. When you are thinking about yourself, it includes your self-awareness and your personal management of yourself in situations. When considering how you interact with others, that looks at your social awareness and your relationship management.
Self-awareness is very important because it is difficult to help others deal with issues when you do not have yourself under control. So, it is necessary to look at your emotions and your confidence as you look at how you perceive yourself. Sometimes people have difficulty developing their self-awareness because they are under so much stress. They cannot pay attention to what is happening to themselves. So, that is why in the workplace there is a focus on mindfulness, meditation, and kindness as acts of kindness and gratitude help to increase the love hormone and decrease the stress hormone. To manage stress better, it is important to know what triggers stress in you and to develop your stress tolerance. Developing skills such as resiliency and optimism will help you on your path. As you manage stress better, you can be more self-aware and begin paying attention to your thought patterns like your feelings when stressed instead of just overreacting.
As you consider the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, it is beneficial to realize that this skill is essential for leaders. They need to know their triggers, how their emotions change based on what is happening and learn to react appropriately. They need to understand their responses and be able to manage them effectively as they lead. When you look at the contribution to a company’s bottom line, emotional intelligence development can be very impactful. Individuals, even those with a lower IQ, but who have a higher level of emotional intelligence, outperform their counterparts by 68%. So, anyone who grows their emotional quotient will, according to Teresa Quinlan, “perform at a statistically higher percentage level than anyone with an equal IQ or even a slightly higher IQ.” In business, when there are tight deadlines and money is on the line, there are big emotions present, and those emotions must be managed well to make rational decisions. Also, when you are in an emotional state it is harder to turn on empathy and assertiveness, which are two vital leadership skills.
Whether you are in a position of leadership or just want to improve your self-awareness and reactions to things in your personal life, focus on developing your emotional intelligence. These skills can make you a better person, leading you to enjoy a better life.
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