Why is Emotional intelligence (EI) important in the workplace?

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the capacity to understand and manage your own emotions as well as those of others around you. Thereby, you have the ability to empathetically handle interpersonal relationships. Being a person with EI is useful for progress in professional life as well.

If you are not Emotionally intelligent, then you struggle to manage your feelings and may impulsively react to other people’s behavior, which may lead to an unpleasant working environment if you are at a workplace. Results may not differ in any environment. That’s why you have to practice EI in order to build your capacity to process your thoughts before taking action. You have to put yourself in other people’s shoes to understand their situation.

 

Elements of Emotional Intelligence?

Daniel Goleman is the person who introduced EI to the business world, and he brought up five components of Emotional Intelligence.

Self awareness

Here, you have to identify your own emotions. Most importantly, you have to be aware of whether your moods, actions, or emotions have any impact on other people. Also,spare some time to know how other people see you.

Self management

You must have the capacity to self-control your emotions and bring a positive outcome to a certain situation. This is an ability you have to put more focus on. You need to hide your true feelings and wait for the right moment to express them. If you have this ability, you can adapt to any change.

Keep in mind that an irritating situation with a coworker or a dissatisfying task given by your boss is temporary. If you let your emotions mess with the situation, it will affect your long-term goals.

To improve this, you have to find a hobby or anything else you can do to release workplace stress. Most of the time, physical exercise will help you in some way.

Social awareness

It’s all about empathy. You have to be an excellent listener and sensitive to how other people feel. When you make decisions, you have to think beyond yourself without personal bias and consider other people’s emotions.

Motivation

We are not always driven by money, recognition, or compliments. Instead, sometimes we may have inner needs, goals, and passions to be achieved. Our passion for the job will decide whether we work hard and perform well. Therefore, what we can do is focus on some aspect of your job that you enjoy. Likewise, try to keep a positive attitude while inspiring others.

Social skills

This is a very valuable skill in the workplace. With this skill, you can get to know other people’s emotions. This is more than being friendly. It involves conflict resolution. Here, you have to sharpen your skills in active listening,leadership, persuasiveness, and verbal and nonverbal communication.

Why is Emotional Intelligence important in the workplace?

In a workplace, you have to pay attention to other people’s nonverbal communication, like sadness or health issues, and then offer your empathy towards them.

When you have empathy,patience,active listening, and positivity, it will be a great backup for your career progression and also for career advancement.It can also be helpful when you work as a team.

In order to create a pleasant working environment, EI plays a vital role. Overall, EI impacts job satisfaction, job performance, and healthy communication.

If your organization faces high turnover, it may be due to a lack of emotional intelligence among employees. When there is EI, there is a tendency for employees to show flexibility and handle additional stress. Sometmes it helps on facing obstacles when a comapny work towards a goal. Employees may willingly contribute their part to getting rid of barriers. since that EI builds loyalty and engagement among employees. Research indicates that companies with executives with high levels of EI are more likely to be extremely profitable.

How to improve EI in the workplace

It is needed to identify your weaknesses. If you don’t have the capability to understand and accept your weaknesses, you can’t expect progression in your personal life as well as your career life.

You can review how you react to some situations in life by yourself or with another person who would give an honest opinion about a certain situation. You have the ability to accept criticism without offense.

Though it is a stressful situation, you have to remain calm without reacting, then respond calmly, comprehending the other person’s emotions, to come to a mutual decision.

Active listening and paying attention to nonverbal communication are mandatory when building emotional intelligence. You have to wait for your turn to speak and understand the other person’s situation before reacting.

In a workplace, when some of your employees are under stress or going through some health issues,you should recognize their growing work loads, significant deadlines, and even their personal lives to make better decisions to manage the stress level of a particular employee. For example, you can reduce their workload, give them time off, or give them stress management training. Because if your employees aren’t happy, it is sometimes difficult to get the expected level of productivity.