Why it’s important to develop your emotional intelligence
IQ has long been seen as the critical factor for success. With its focus on verbal and numerical skills it is particularly useful in an academic or scientific context. But IQ alone is not enough - emotions are an important part of life and influence your interactions with others. Managing these effectively helps you succeed in life. That’s where EQ – or emotional intelligence - comes in.
The term emotional intelligence was introduced by 2 American academics, Peter Salovey and John Mayer. Later psychologist Daniel Goleman’s book of the same name popularised the ideas by explaining its importance and identifying ways to understand yourself and others.
In a work environment, emotional intelligence is a critical skill for managers and leaders. So how can you develop your emotional intelligence?
Know what you want – Set goals by imagining what you want, rather than what you don’t want. “I want a role as a manager” is more specific than “I don’t want to be in this role” and enables you to identify the skills or experience you need under your belt to achieve your goal and then set about gaining them.
Understand yourself – for example, what’s important to you. And in different contexts – what’s important to you about your job, your family and your interests. The clearer you are about these, the more likely you are to achieve the outcomes you want.
Manage your moods – your emotions influence your behaviour. Understanding your emotional triggers will help you manage your mood. If you feel anxious, it will affect your performance and impact on those around you. Experimenting with a variety of ways to reduce your anxiety will help you be more effective. Coaching can also help.
Understand others – try seeing situations from different perspectives. Review events and imagine how others might have felt or how a fly on the wall might have perceived that situation. This is especially important when you want to influence other people or are imparting information which will impact on others.
Make things happen – Use this 4 step process: decide what you want, do something, notice what happens and change what you do until you get your desired outcome. After all, if you do what you always do, you’ll get what you always got.
If you want to find out more, there are some short easy reads around – like The Emotional Intelligence Pocketbook or Quick Fix Your Emotional Intelligence.
Psychometric tests, like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can also help you understand more about your emotional intelligence and are especially helpful in enabling a team to understand each other and work together more effectively.
Thanks to Alexa, for the inspiration for this topic.
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On the blog this month:
Performance mismanagement? Managing employee performance in the public sector.
Be as un-HR like as possible : a recipe for success from one of the UK’s HR leaders.
Does mud stick? When senior managers are accused of bullying or harassment.
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Some interesting links:
Improve workplace engagement: sack the grumps.
Manage your time like Jim Collins – discipline is the key to success for him.
Steps to happiness.
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Are there particular topics you’d like to see covered in future newsletters? Please let me have your suggestions.
And who else could benefit from reading this too?
Till next month,
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