How Does Emotional Intelligence Make You More Successful?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and regulate one’s emotions and understand the emotions of others. A high EQ (emotional quotient) helps us build relationships, reduce team stress, defuse conflict, and improve job satisfaction. Ultimately, high emotional intelligence means having the potential to increase team productivity and staff retention. Therefore, when it comes to recruiting, employers look to hire and promote candidates with a high EQ rather than IQ (intelligence quotient).

Emotional intelligence is important to everyone who wants to be career-ready. The following five pillars of emotional intelligence are based on the work of Daniel Goleman. Read more about them and how they give you a head start in the workforce.

Self-awareness.

The ability to recognize emotions, emotional triggers, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, values, and goals. Furthermore, it helps us understand how thoughts and behavior affect the above-mentioned. When you can label the emotion and understand its cause, you can tackle the problem with the right action.

Self-control.

Based on self-awareness, self-management is the ability to regulate emotions. Everyone, including those with a high EQ, experiences bad moods, impulses, and negative emotions such as anger and stress. However, self-control is the ability to control these emotions rather than control yourself. Negative emotions and impulsive behavior not only negatively affect those around you but can also affect your well-being.

Motivation.

It is essentially what moves us to take action. When we face setbacks and obstacles, checking our motives is what inspires us to keep moving forward. Those motivated by “achievement” and the work they are proud of are more likely to ask for feedback, monitor their progress, work hard, and strive to continually improve their skills, knowledge, and results. It is easy to see why highly motivated people are an asset to any team.

Empathy.

The ability to connect emotionally with others and take into account their feelings, concerns, and points of view. It is an important skill when negotiating with internal and external stakeholders and clients since it allows for anticipating the needs and reactions of the other. Furthermore, empathy is a key part of welcoming and appreciating different points of view to solve problems and find innovative ways to move forward; it is essential for team harmony. By realizing and responding to the emotional needs of the people you work with, you achieve a happy work culture.

Relationship management.

This one is about interpersonal skills: one’s ability to generate genuine trust, relationships, and respect from colleagues. This is more than the cliche of a confidence drop during a team-building exercise: it is about trusting and trusting a team. A manager with excellent relationship management skills can inspire, guide, and develop his team members, which greatly affects team performance and productivity.

Although emotional intelligence seems to come naturally to some, the plasticity of our brains means that we can increase our emotional intelligence if we are willing to work on it.