Emotional intelligence is a term that has grown in popularity over the course of the past decade. It’s been around since the 1990s and was made more mainstream when psychologist Dan Goleman first published a book by the same name in 1995. As people are increasingly interested in how to heal their psychological pain in healthy, effective ways, looking more closely at their internal, social, and professional environments has become a priority. But beyond helping you become a happier family member, student, friend, lover, and co-worker, leveraging your understanding of emotional intelligence can help you become a stronger leader and bolster your professional ambitions.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and process your own feelings, and the emotions of others, in a healthy way. Many people were raised to be reactionary toward things that happen to them, such as getting into a disagreement with a friend or receiving a large sum of money.
During a disagreement, feelings like anger, betrayal, and fear may lead you to distance yourself from your friend and shut them out permanently. Yet, the healthiest option might be to take a short break and come back together within a few hours or a couple of days to discuss the issue openly and honestly, not throw away the entire relationship over a single bout of tension.
When receiving a windfall of money, feeling elated, excited, and relieved may lead to you spending irresponsibly and showing off your new wealth to people with nefarious intentions. Not being able to manage your behavior while feeling these emotions can lead you to being manipulated out of some of your new money or even outright robbed.
There are four key components of emotional intelligence and they are:-
1 The ability to stop and take stock of what’s going on within your body and mind. This means understanding what you’re feeling, where that feeling is coming from, and the impact that it’s having on you.
2 The ability to manage your behavior in healthy ways in spite of feeling strong and/or unpleasant emotions.
3 The ability to take stock of what’s going on with the people around you, including co-workers, clients, friends, and family members.
4 The ability to empathize and effectively communicate with other people.
Practicing these skills and applying them on a consistent basis can mean feeling more confident and happy while you create enduring, healthy relationships with the people around you. And this includes the people that you work for and with each day.
Emotional Intelligence in Business:-
From project coordinators to department heads to CEOs, leaders abound at every level of any size of company. While emotional intelligence is valuable anywhere within an organization, having it in those who are managing others is a recipe for success. Because they can recognize, process, and manage their behavior while experiencing emotions like panic and fear, they work well (and manage others well) in high-pressure situations like involvement with high-profile events or striving to meet tight deadlines. Being able to appropriately nurture their relationships with clients, partners, and employees means that they are better able to get the best out of people. Trust and reliability in a relationship are virtually guaranteed when an emotionally intelligent person is at the helm.
Emotional Intelligence Can Grow Your Career:-
Resumes touting extensive years of experience and ample amounts of sophisticated technical skills are great for getting hired. However, holding onto that position and advancing at that company will hinge more on emotional intelligence than work history.
Becoming More Emotionally Intelligent:-
Humans aren’t born with high levels of emotional intelligence. At birth, our world mostly revolves around eating and sleeping, and we are extremely selfish and needy. But we can train ourselves to become more emotionally intelligent over time with patience for the process, consistent practice of the skills, and ample grace for our struggles as we work to change ourselves for the better.
Managing Yourself Toward Success:-
Training yourself to become more emotionally intelligent isn’t something that happens overnight. But making it an intentional daily practice means taking steps to become increasingly emotionally intelligent day after day. Just like practicing any other skill, you will inevitably improve over time, even if the progress is slow. People who can appropriately manage their behavior will do everything that makes them look like a leader in their field and on their team. This includes being able to make mistakes without getting defensive, apologizing for missteps without being passive-aggressive, helping others without becoming resentful if that assistance isn’t returned or profusely praised, and winning without gloating or insulting competitors.
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