Emotional Intelligence

What is Emotional Intelligence?  

Emotional intelligence (EI) is identifying, perceiving, managing, and utilizing one's emotional state in the best manner possible. Today, emotional intelligence has made its way to the business world, precisely workplaces.

It's now essential to develop strong emotional intelligence in the workplace. Strong emotional intelligence helps comprehend your and others' struggles, pain, and grief while disposing of these emotional feelings for the organization's best interest.

At the individual level, emotional intelligence can be scientifically measured through EQ (Emotional Quotient). It's the opposite of IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which refers to cognitive capacity only.

Significance of Emotional Intelligence at Workplaces

Having knowledge and practice in emotional intelligence can help you to assess your current mental state to a great extent. Since it deals with the human emotional state, it's easier for you to control your emotional outburst and work according to the situation.

At workplaces, both employers and employees can go through emotional imbalance. It leads to misunderstanding, arguments, and even abuse. However, if an organization develops and establishes a culture of respecting each other's emotional state, things may be managed more efficiently.

Below, we’ll share some absolute benefits you can achieve within your organization by implementing EI standards and norms:

• Being steadfast and strategic in attaining the company's goals by working through any emotional obstacles
• Achieving a respectful between employers and employees
• Developing a helpful mindset toward other coworkers
• Instilling a motivation to value own emotions while the ones of the colleagues
• Employees are more agile in taking calculated risks while not stressed out with the additional work pressure
• Developing leadership skills and mentality by managing personal feelings

Goleman and His 5 Pillars of EI

A US psychologist and author, Danial Goleman, promoted emotional intelligence by setting five pillars in his book Emotional Intelligence in 1995. These are commonly known asGoleman’s five elements of EI.

Below, we’re sharing those five pillars or elements based on Goleman’s study:

1. Self-Consciousness

You must learn to hone the required skills to redirect your strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limitations, toward productive activities to attain personal and organizational goals.  

2. Control on One’s Emotion

An employee must be resilient enough to reject any impulsive behavior or decision-making at the workplace. 

3. Motivation

You must be enthusiastic about the jobs you're assigned while working on them diligently without interruption to achieve your goals.

4. Being Empathetic and Responsive

You must learn to empathize or understand what your coworker might feel and respond by helping them manage their emotional state efficiently.

5. Interpersonal Skills

Communicating with people at the workplace is a very valued skill. One must develop such interpersonal skills as it helps any worker or employee to achieve company goals by mentoring, influencing, or working as a key team player.

Developing Emotional Intelligence at the Workplace

You have to learn how to develop your emotional intelligence at the workplace to excel in what you do while helping others with the same.

Companies are emphasizing higher EQ more these days, so the employees can deal with their problems efficiently while attaining common goals together.

Let’s find out how you can develop emotional intelligence within your organization:

1. Understanding What You’re Going Through

Your current emotional state may develop from various sources; personal life, failures, dissatisfaction in the workplace, or conflict with colleagues or employers.

However, it's best to identify what's bothering you more precisely and work on it so your workflow is stable.

2. Learn to be Responsive

Reacting on your impulse to any non-compliant situation isn't the right thing to do in the workplace. Highly emotionally intelligent people can deal with conflict or confrontational situations calmly and diplomatically.

Being responsive to a problem or differences of opinion is a sign of maturity rather than letting your grudges out on the people.

3. Learn How to Listen

Active listening to fellow workers or employees is an excellent way to resolve disputes or disagreements. Often, people make the mistake of not listening to a person while imposing their logic and point of view forcibly.

This thing mostly stretches a regular discussion to a controversy, hence, losing precious time and resources of the business.  

4. Receive Feedback Positively

One of the key factors of emotional intelligence is receiving feedback positively. At workplaces, you might be praised for some of your qualities while critiqued for others.

But the smart way to deal with this situation is to take any negative remarks as constructive criticism to improve yourself while benefiting the business.   

5. Keep Practicing

Attaining emotional intelligence is only enough if you practice its principles and skills to handle your emotion throughout your career. Many people often need help finding their way, not to have immediate positive results. But the ideal way is to keep up with a positive mindset.

You must analyze your emotions and mental state as you go farther down your career. In this case, growth and accomplishments come to people in various fashions and times.

Implementation of Emotional Intelligence

Implementing emotional intelligence in the workplace can be challenging. But knowing some helpful tips might get the job done:

• Work on yourself more by following the experts in the field.
• If you’re an employer, learn about your employees’ strengths and weaknesses, so you can implement appropriate management styles to uplift their emotional state and skills.
• Let your employees speak their minds, so they feel engaged and valued.
• Help yourself and your employees or colleagues in stress management.
• Motivate yourself and your employees or coworkers to share their emotions or feelings about certain practices or norms in the workplace.
• Implement a fact-based feedback routine for all employees to develop the habit of taking negative feedback or opinion constructively for personal growth.