No matter where you are living, where you are working, or where you belong, self-improvement is something everyone is working on and crawling new ways. COVID-19 gave people a solid reason to spend excessive time with their loved ones. Here, I believe that self-improvement is something that is very crucial for everyone even during post-pandemic conditions.
Success is something everyone craves, but you might have noticed that it’s not only the smarter people that succeed. You might have come across numerous people who are academically brilliant but they are not successful at work and also in their personal relationships, right? Here’s when your intellectual ability, emotional intelligence, also called intelligence quotient (IQ) plays a crucial role and pushes you towards success. As your IQ helps you to get into your desired institution, your EQ helps you to manage your stress and emotion.
Undoubtedly, emotional intelligence affects you in various aspects such as your physical health, mental health, relationships, school performance, job performance, and social intelligence. Below are some verbal habits that everyone must acquire in the coming future for the enhancement of their emotional intelligence.
- “Hello”
Most of us use the phrase “Hello?” but the question arises that do we all use this phrase?
Actually no. Just pay attention to how people start their conversation. You will notice that people usually start their conversation with open-ended questions, which usually include such questions that everyone knows that they are not inclined to know the answer to.
Such questions are
- “How are you?”
- “What are you up to?”
- “What’s going on?”
well, that’s very rare that the person answers with complete truthfulness. No one will answer you like “ yeah I am suffering from a headache” or something like that. The answer may vary if you are having a conversation with someone you are really close to, but there is a vast majority that we usually answer with these phrases as
- “Good. and you?”
- “Nothing.
- Not so bad.
Opening a conversation with something neutral and positive, something that is not self-centered or other-centered would be a great gesture and you’ll see a noticeable improvement. This may sound incredibly semantic but starting a conversation with something that does not involve any distinguishable question is a great deal of self-enhancement.
- “Thank you for understanding”
This phrase must be used to replace the word “sorry”. It doesn’t mean at all that you should never apologize. Obviously, you should apologize for your mistakes and when you want to make any amendments, but I believe that this word is often misused even when someone does not really mean to apologize. For example
- “Sorry I can’t meet the deadline”
- “Sorry I missed the meeting”
- “Sorry I couldn’t attend your party”
There are many things regarding emotional intelligence that involve shifting of focus from yourself to others, but pseudo-apology is something that diversifies the focus completely on you. We all were taught at our young age that we shouldn’t repeat something we are sorry about.
Consider rephrasing your sentences this way
- “I was suffering from an emergency, that’s why I couldn’t meet the deadline. Thanks for understanding”
- “I couldn’t attend the meeting because I had an accident on my way to the office. Thanks for understanding”
- “My mother was sick because of which I couldn’t attend the party. Thanks for understanding”
These sorts of phrases combine sympathy, other-focus, gratitude, and are more subtle. Hence these are powerful.
- “Absolutely nothing”
Do you remember this old saying “Do something instead of standing there idle”? People who are emotionally intelligent prefer the opposite “Stand there and do nothing.”
Or it’s analogy “Keep quiet and don’t say anything”.
Saying nothing means that you avoid saying something stupid and giving yourself time to think before replying. It also means that those people who are inclined to fill silences, and you are inviting the other person to continue the conversation.
Let us consider a negotiation. For example, You make an offer and gave a start to the conversation. The other person makes a suggestion. Instead of continuing, you simply stay quiet. It would be a great practice to say nothing at all if you don’t have anything to say.
- “Am I making any sense?”
This is another most powerful way to replace phrases like “Do you have any questions?” or else “Do you understand?” Usually, people use declarative sentences with high pitch and this is most commonly applied while asking questions. It’s a bad habit according to some people, but I believe that it’s a powerful phrase to ensure that the other person is listening to you. It is an emotionally intelligent mechanism that tunes in to the audience and enables them to make suggestions.
Let me put you in a situation, for example, you ask the question “do you have any questions?”. The default answer would be “no”. But on the flip side of the coin, if you use phrases like “Am I making any sense?” or “Do you understand?”, it contains a subtle message. This makes it much more sufficient for the other person to answer the question sufficiently and honorably.
- “Tell me more”
This is the most powerful phrase and this plays a crucial role when it comes to enhancements of artificial intelligence. It is such a universal phrase that it is nearly for all purposes. You can use this phrase in almost every situation, especially when you do things such as,
- To assure the other person that you are interested in their conversation with all ears.
- Avoid the attention diversion from another person to yourself and focus on the conversion of another person.
- Avoid silence and pauses between conversations.
It is undoubtedly the most powerful tool which emotionally intelligent people usually use. This phrase can be utilized efficiently if the conversation is becoming awkward or unsatisfying. This is also helpful to continue the conversation if you are replying with three-word phrases.
For example, just imagine that your friend is telling you that,
“It’s hard to focus on work”. In such situations, there would be no better and satisfying reply than “tell me more about the difficulties you are facing during your work”. If you continue your conversations by adopting this practice, this helps you to share a variety of opinions with each other and reach a deeper level of conversation.
Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Emotional Intelligence
I personally believe that artificial intelligence is completely revolutionizing the world, and will change the job profiles of companies. Emotional intelligence is going to be a mandatory skill in the upcoming years. According to the recent report from Capgemini Research Institute, the skill of emotional intelligence will likely increase six-folds within the next five years. Sooner or later EI will become a “must-have” skill.
No doubt there are universal benefits of AI such as repeatability, scalability but in the current era of digitization, artificial intelligence is evolving in such a way that it helps to develop a better understanding with customers. Hence emotional intelligence is one such sector in which AI and machines find it hard to emulate, making it an essential key to play a vital role in today’s era of automation.