Emotional intelligence, a term that has been on the tip of the tongue for a very long time span, and has been studied for almost decades. According to the author of emotional intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry, people with an overhead degree of emotional intelligence tend to make approximately $30,000 every year in comparison to those with an underground degree of emotional intelligence.
The process of developing an understanding of emotional intelligence relatively becomes easier if we lay our eyes on each of the emotions individually. Our range of emotions can be effectively categorized into 8 core emotions: anticipation, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise, fear, trust, and joy. These eight types of emotions can be lessened, amplified, or combined in order to provide the complete spectrum of human emotions. Awareness of these eight building blocks of emotions is the best way to enhance emotional intelligence in daily lives.
Sadly, it is noticed that employees still do not embrace emotional intelligence in their workspaces. This may be because employees believe in myths associated with emotional intelligence and think that this is not actually a thing. This thought has been transformed since researchers have concluded that the strongest predictor of workspace effectiveness is none other than emotional intelligence.
With that in mind, here are the top 5 pivotal practices by acquiring which emotional intelligence can be effectively deployed for the enhancement of personal as well as organizational work success.
#1 Focus on Well-Being and Mental Health
The damage encountered due to the pandemic outbreak has magnified the significance of mental health and well-being. More than 41% of the adults suffered from depression and anxiety as of January 2021. This can adversely impact productivity, relationships, and mental health if it is not addressed appropriately.
You can utilize a calendar to put your mental health by:
- Making a daily routine of self-care
- Spending time doing activities that you enjoy
- Having a meeting with the therapist online
- Limiting screen time
- Stepping outside your living space for at least 20-30 minutes
- Minimization of isolation
Leaders can utilize the following tactics on an organizational level.
- Transform the environment where everyone feels secure
- Launch an employee wellness program
- Enforce working hours
- Help employees to solve the management problems
- Encourage a positive work environment
- Focus on early prevention or intervention
#2 Develop Social Bonds
The most crucial practice employees must mandatorily acquire is the development of a social bond with their team members. You must already be familiar with the fact that a pandemic outbreak has resulted in team scatteration. Everyone misses one-on-ones and personal interactions and everyone is suffering from social isolation both in their personal and professional lives. To combat this, employees must schedule fitness challenges, game tournaments, or virtual launches. Also, it would be better to schedule interactive workshops or holiday parties for the development of a healthy social bond.
#3 Change Your Mentality About Feedback and Criticism
Numerous of us are quite quivering in fear whenever it boils down to feedback or criticism. It is a great practice to use feedback to your advantage. Obviously, it is not an effortless task but it is possible by using reflection. By this, it means that ask yourself the following sort of questions:
- Why are the critiques upsetting you?
- What was my reaction to the criticism?
- What is the possible action that can be taken without straightforwardly pointing fingers?
Negative feedback and criticism provides the opportunity to grow at a tremendous pace also, it is beneficial for deterring bad habits or behaviors. Leaders can use criticism for the enhancement of their effectiveness. Not only this, it helps in developing a transparent yet healthy relationship between employees as well as customers.
#4 Make Yourself Vulnerable
Talking of vulnerabilities, it can be defined as the willingness to recognize the emotions, especially those emotions that are associated with pain. In emotional intelligence Whenever vulnerability comes under discussion, it means emotional vulnerability. Being vulnerable in a relationship does not mean being physically vulnerable. Consequently, vulnerability is all about emotions, certainly about complex emotions such as shame, anxiety, and frustration. The thing that matters the most is the acknowledgment of such emotions and addressing them effectively. Emotional vulnerability probably proves to be uncomfortable or painful, but the fact cannot be ignored that it is a really powerful asset. It effectively decreases frustration and anxiety. Also, it enhances relationships and self-awareness.
It would be better to consider the following points in order to become more emotionally vulnerable:
- Consider counseling or therapy
- Engage in emotion-based journaling
- Explaining your emotions in layman terms
- Clear communication about the requirements and demands
#5 Practice Empathy
In layman’s terms, empathy is basically putting oneself in the shoe of someone else. Arguably, this is the most crucial leadership skill. Nevertheless, empathy is the foundation of developing social connections. This helps in the establishment of a more engaged, loyal, as well as productive team. Empathy amplifies joy and also fosters collaborations.
Here is the list of some focus areas while practicing empathy:
- Be genuine. It’s okay to be a little vulnerable.
- Talk less and listen more.
- Develop better relationships with others with one-on-ones or less formal lunch.
- Take a timeout before rushing to critique and judgment until you possess relevant data.
- Establish your muscle of self-awareness.
- Ask questions to others when you get an idea that something is off.
Who Serves The Most, Reaps The Most
We can’t help everybody, but everybody can surely help someone. There would be no wrong in saying that in a way, helping others is helping ourselves. Emotional intelligence along with artificial intelligence plays a vital role in our progression towards success. It would be bad practice to keep knowledge about emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence to yourself. The spread of knowledge must never be stopped by any means. Don’t even think twice before sharing any informative resources of articles, podcasts, books, and Ted Talks with others. It would be a splendid practice to schedule workshops or seminars with team members.
One more piece of advice that must be taken under consideration is to do the discussion and modeling of core principles of emotional intelligence during one-on-ones and meetings. Also, it would be better to encourage others to do testing of their emotional intelligence and schedule emotional intelligence checkups. This way, team members can leverage the potential advantages of emotional intelligence for work success.