Whether you work in an office building or on a factory floor, you’re surrounded by people with different opinions, personalities, and approaches to handling the challenges of the workplace. Some of these people are more successful than others, and the difference often comes down to one thing: emotional intelligence (EQ). Emotional intelligence, sometimes called EQ or EI, refers to your ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions in addition to controlling how others feel about you. Having high EQ can help you be more successful at work and make life-long connections with your coworkers as well as your customers.
Once you figure out what emotional intelligence is, you can start thinking about how to improve yours and those around you. Here are a few tips on improving your emotional intelligence. 1) Improve Your Self-Awareness: Develop self-awareness through mindfulness practices like meditation or yoga. Try to be aware of how you’re feeling in the moment as well as understanding the deeper causes of your emotions so that you don’t react automatically but respond thoughtfully instead. 2) Take Time For Yourself: Sometimes we need time for ourselves in order to recharge and find some space from all the chaos that surrounds us in our daily lives. Think about whether or not it’s been too long since you’ve taken a break from work. You may also want to try changing up your routine by doing something different than usual like going for a walk at lunchtime, reading an inspiring book, taking up a new hobby, or exploring something new just because. 3) Practice Mindfulness: By practicing mindfulness regularly and intentionally (even if it’s just five minutes every day), you will learn more about yourself and how best to handle difficult situations.
Many people mistakenly think of emotional intelligence as an IQ-based skill set reserved for MBAs and PhDs. But emotional intelligence is actually much more than that; in fact, it’s a competency that encompasses four fundamental skills—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management—and is an indispensable component of a successful businessperson.
While emotional intelligence has been around for a while, its ability to predict success has never been more critical. Organizations now have even more access to data than ever before, so they’re using that information to make informed decisions about who they hire and promote. When they factor in a candidate’s emotional intelligence, they see that there’s actually a positive correlation between EQ and workplace success.
Employees at all levels of an organization must develop strong emotional intelligence (EI) to ensure their personal and organizational success. As an employer, how can you facilitate EI in your workforce? An obvious way is to hire workers with high EI from the get-go, but another tactic is to foster it through day-to-day interactions. Here are a few ways you can promote high EI in your employees.
Check out this article on why EQ is the new IQ here.
or this one on Being an Emotionally Invested Leader