Article:
Understanding of human behavior and habits has deepened in the last few years. It has helped to unlock several complicated processes and patterns to improve your career. One of the enlightening wisdom is that the emotional quotient (EQ) is as important as the intelligence quotient and is commonly referred to as emotional intelligence.
If your intelligence quotient helps you to score higher grades and get hired in top organizations then the emotional quotient is what helps you to sustain your achievements and success.
Let’s understand what emotional intelligence is, to begin with.
Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand, process, and utilize your emotions while understanding the emotions of people around you – it could be your teammates, seniors, colleagues, higher management, friends, family members, and others. It’s a fine line that you may have to walk on but totally worth it.
Emotional Intelligence and its Relation With Professional Brilliance
EQ is the foundation for strong character, especially in the workplace. People with better emotional intelligence have great interpersonal skills and hence are cherished team persons, better at team management, conflict management, coordination, leadership roles, and decision-makers, and thus a highly valued asset for an organization.
If you are aware of your emotions and have control over it then you are expected to respond instead of reacting and not make impulsive decisions. Instead, think rationally, and empathetically and arrive at objective decisions. An emotionally intelligent individual can understand others well, the underlying critical issues that are always spoken about or assumed to be too insignificant to speak about. It goes a long way in managing teams and therefore organizations. So, an emotionally intelligent individual becomes a valuable resource for the organization with enviable professional success.
Five Pillars of Emotional Intelligence
There could be a rare number of people who are emotionally intelligent from birth; they are gifted. For others, it’s a skill that can be cultivated by working on the five important pillars.
Self-Awareness
There is a reason behind every emotion and its origin. Often, we fail to identify our own emotions and get ruled by them. An emotionally intelligent person can identify emotions and trace their origin. As a result, he knows what he is feeling and why he is feeling so. Thus, he can check if it’s suitable to express the feeling, correct it, or tweak it. It is an absolute power to own your emotions and keep them under check. It only becomes possible when you are aware of your emotions.
Self-Regulation
We have just touched upon it. Once you are aware of your emotions, you can process it suitably. It is as important as identifying your emotions. What you think and how you behave has a profound impact on your colleagues, teammates, clients, and others. So, you must check and manage your emotions for the best outcomes.
Motivation
Sound emotional intelligence also comes with the wisdom to remain self-motivated. Being a professional, if you have to look for motivation from external sources then it is like giving a significant amount of power to others to make you do the work that you are supposed to do. That’s a grave mistake for a professional especially if you have high aspirations.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand others’ feelings and state of mind from their words and behavior. It is an essential leadership skill to understand your team, establish a meaningful bond, be a reliable support to lean on and build trust and confidence in the team.
Social Skills
Establishing effective communication is a finer skill and good leaders are often found to have mastered it. Social skills like listening to team members, addressing their concerns, and differences, sharing experiences, co-habiting the workplace, and forming a bond go a long way in resolving conflict without taking any significant shape. Besides conflict management, it helps keep your teams anchored, perform better, and thus successively achieve organizational goals.