Grow Your Career Success With Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is more than a buzzword used in personality tests and self-help books. It’s a foundation for Career Success.

It’s the difference between leaders who connect with their employees and ones who sound like this:

Boss: "What's the problem now? Why can't you just get your work done on time?"

Employee: "Well, we've been having some issues with the new software and it's causing delays."

Boss: "That's not an excuse. You should have figured it out by now. Get it done or I'll find someone who can."

Employee: "But we've been trying our best. Can we have some more training or support to help us get up to speed?"

Boss: "No. I don't have time for that. Just get it done."

This boss is unable to recognize or understand the emotions of their team. They're unable to use those emotions to facilitate thinking or problem-solving. As a result, they create a negative work environment and fail to support their team in a productive manner.

In other words, they lack emotional intelligence: the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.

It is an important skill to have if you want to create a positive work environment, build strong and effective teams, and make well-informed decisions.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence is a person's ability to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.

This includes the ability to:

• identify and express emotions
• manage and regulate emotions
• use emotions to facilitate thinking
• understand and empathize with the emotions of others

You can think of emotional intelligence as a combination of four key attributes:

1. Self-Awareness: Emotionally intelligent people recognize how they’re feeling and understand how those emotions impact their thoughts and actions. However, they lso perceive how their emotions impact others around them.

2. Self-Management: While we can’t always control our feelings, emotionally intelligent people know they can control how we respond to them.

3. Social Awareness: Generally, emotionally intelligent people can read a room”. Whenever needed, they pick up on how others are feeling and strive to understand what’s at the heart of it.

4. Relationship Management: Connection matters for emotionally intelligent people. They know how to motivate, communicate, and influence others, even when there’s a conflict.

The TL;DR of EQ: Emotional intelligence is about knowing how you feel and how other people feel. Moreover, it's about understanding why you and others feel the way you do.

Being able to use that understanding helps you to make good decisions and solve problems. Also, emotional intelligence is about being able to talk about your feelings and listen to others when they talk about theirs.

The Benefits of Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

Overall, developing your emotional intelligence can have numerous benefits! This includes improved communication and conflict resolution skills, increased team productivity and morale, and enhanced decision-making abilities.

These skills can be especially important in times of change or uncertainty. Another benefit of emotional intelligence is that it can help you to navigate challenges and foster a positive and productive work environment.

Let’s break it down:

1 - Improved communication and conflict-resolution skills

Developing your emotional intelligence can help you to become a more self-aware and empathetic leader. Therefore having emotional intelligence can improve your communication and conflict-resolution skills!

By being able to understand and recognize the emotions of yourself and others, you can more effectively navigate difficult conversations and conflicts, and find mutually beneficial solutions.

2 - Increased team productivity and morale

A positive and supportive work environment is essential for high levels of team productivity and morale. As a leader with high emotional intelligence, you will be better equipped to create and maintain such an environment by understanding and managing the emotions of yourself and your team.

This can lead to increased job satisfaction and employee retention, which can ultimately contribute to higher levels of productivity.

3 - Enhanced decision-making abilities

Being emotionally intelligent can also enhance your decision-making abilities. By considering the emotional impact of your decisions on yourself and others, you can make more well-informed and strategic choices.

Moreover, these decisions account for potential consequences and long-term effects on your team and organization.

How Can I Become More Emotionally Intelligent?

Emotional intelligence is like a muscle. Hence the more you work it, the stronger it gets! There are several ways you can build your emotional intelligence for Career Success:

1) Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness can pull you out of negative habits and stressful responses. This helps you to focus on what matters in the moment. It’s a way to become more self-aware and in tune with your own emotions, as well as those of others.

2) Ask for feedback: Your colleagues and supervisor may have ideas about how you can improve your emotional intelligence! Furthermore, this feedback could be based on their own experience and their relationship with you.

3) Reflect on your emotions: Once you notice your emotions, take time to understand what caused them. Especially consider how they impact your work and relationships with others! Think about how you usually respond, and how you would like to respond next time.

4) Seek out learning opportunities: Look for Workshops or training programs that focus on emotional intelligence skills such as empathy, communication, conflict resolution, influence, and relationship management.

By incorporating these practices, you can work on improving your emotional intelligence and becoming a stronger and more supportive leader!

Career Success The (Emotionally) Intelligent Way

Emotional intelligence is a crucial component of Career Success. It’s the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.

Also if you’re looking for a good place to start… well, you’re here!Emotional Intelligence is a foundational skill that’s embedded into the Courses and workshops you’ll find in our Career Success Catalog.

Being emotionally intelligent enables us to create positive work environments, build strong and effective teams, and make well-informed and strategic decisions! By developing emotional intelligence, you can position yourself for success in your career (and personal life, too).