The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace - Tammy Jersey
Emotional intelligence is just as vital in the workplace as IQ. Having a high level of EI in the organization helps employees understand and process nonverbal communications.EI in the workplace also helps employees be more aware of their personal emotions. It helps them analyze and adjust their behavior before it becomes a problem for a client or co-worker.
I recently read an article titled The importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace published by Human Resources Director Magazine. The article highlights the importance of emotional quotient in the workplace.
Emotional Intelligence (“EQ”) has been touted as a critical quality in leaders and healthy cultures. Simply defined, EQ is about the way leaders can perceive and use reasoning to impact others’ emotions, can understand what will influence others’ emotions, and can manage their own emotions. Understanding and displaying emotional intelligence in the workplace is important to a company’s ability to stay competitive, inspire employees, and remain relevant to customers.
The article goes on to highlight the 5 components of EQ one should have at work:
1. Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one’s emotions, motivations, and abilities. Having self-awareness also allows one to understand the effect their emotions have on others.
Being self-aware helps employees understand how they are viewed by co-workers, clients, and managers. It also allows employees and leaders to accept feedback from colleagues.
2. Self-regulation
Self-regulation is the ability to control one’s impulses, adjust their emotions before speaking or acting, and express themselves appropriately to create a more positive effect on the situation.
Self-regulation allows employees to take responsibility for their actions, adapt to change, and respond appropriately to co-workers and clients’ emotions and behavior. Without self-regulation, emotional outbursts are likely to happen, which can affect work relationships.
3. Motivation
Motivation is the urge and desire to do something. Motivation gives a person an interest in learning and self-improvement as well as the strength to keep going despite the challenges they face.
Motivation gives employees goals and desires to accomplish, which can promote different feelings throughout the process, which develops the emotional intelligence of an employee.
4. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to recognize and understand other people’s emotions and reactions. According to Goleman, empathy can only be achieved when self-awareness is achieved, as he believes people must understand themselves before understanding others.
In the workplace, an employee who has empathy can understand their colleagues’ feelings and can handle workplace situations more effectively. In addition, people are more likely to connect to a colleague who shows genuine empathy.
5. Social skills
Social skills are the skills needed to communicate and interact with other people. This skill allows people to pick up on jokes, hold meaningful conversations with others, maintain friendships and relationships, sarcasm, and find common ground with other people.
Having strong social skills in the office allows employees to listen, speak, and resolve conflicts more effectively. It helps employees make friends, build rapport, and gain the trust and respect of their co-workers. Social skills help leaders connect and communicate with their members on a deeper level.
You can read the original article here.
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Tammy Jersey founded TKJ Leadership, a certified woman-owned business to build high-performance cultures, one leader at a time. Her mission is to encourage leaders to play bigger and with more confidence. Tammy specializes in amplifying women leaders. She dares them to operate outside their comfort zones to get their voices heard, empower their teams, and to be inspiring to others.
