Emotional intelligence or EQ is the ability to manage one’s emotions. Having emotional intelligence is a key skill in your personal life and at work. To be emotionally intelligent, you need to be self-aware. You should be able to express yourself healthily, reason with your feelings, and regulate them.
Emotional intelligence is more than a psychological concept. It plays an important role in the workplace. Emotional intelligence affects interpersonal communication and helps people flourish in their jobs. People with higher emotional intelligence tend to have:
- Higher satisfaction with social support at work
- A higher perception of power at work
You can develop emotional intelligence by working at it. Here are some helpful suggestions that will help you build your EQ.
Assess Your EQ Level
Understanding your present level of emotional intelligence can drive changes in the right direction. You can use online tests to have a fair understanding of your current EQ. It’s also very helpful to simply create a list of concerns you’d like to fix. It’s also helpful for you to create a daily journal to help you reflect on your emotional intelligence.
It’s important to remember that it’s not just about knowing your weaknesses, it’s also about acknowledging your strengths. When you know what your weaknesses are, you’ll be aware of them and can find ways to improve them.
Learn to Self Regulate
When you’ve learned to be more aware of your feelings, you’re more capable of regulating them. This does not mean that you bottle up your feelings. Nor does this mean that you impulsively act on everything you feel. Self-regulation means expressing yourself in a healthy manner and refraining from poor behavior when you need to.
There are different things you can do to help you regulate your feelings:
- Learn to meditate
- Start a blog to write about your experiences
- Take up a hobby
- Commit to taking three deep breaths before reacting
You can develop the skills to self-regulate by joining an online course or a coaching site to help you. You can get professional help from a therapist who can teach you specific skills. Joining a community on a membership site can give you ways to self-regulate as you get tips from other people.
Build Your People Skills
People skills are a key part of having emotional intelligence. You’re interacting with customers, colleagues, and higher-ups at work. It’s important to communicate with them well to do a good job and create a harmonious environment.
Here are some ways you can improve your people skills:
- Pay complete attention to someone when they’re speaking. Turn your cellphone off or go somewhere quiet
- Don’t interrupt when they speak
- Pay attention to body language, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues
- Use an open body posture. Avoid crossing your arms or legs in interactions
- Stay out of controversial topics
- Develop empathy by picturing yourself in the other person’s shoes
- Look for common ground
It’s important to remember that you can work well with other people by finding common interests. When you’re able to look out for your interests without sacrificing that of others, you can come to a mutual agreement. This will help you with negotiations at work and increase your standing at the workplace.
Your people skills especially matter when you start an or online business and deal with customers. Higher emotional intelligence means that you’ll be more successful in attracting people to work with you.
You can build emotional intelligence through self-awareness and work. A key aspect of an emotionally intelligent person is their ability to self-motivate. Read or listen to books on productivity and habit-building to develop self-motivational skills. Even though developing these abilities seem like a lot of hard work, the pay-off is more than worth it. You’ll have a more successful work-life and feel personally satisfied.