Importance of Emotional Intelligence ‘EQ’ in workplace. How to increase your EQ to boost career success

Emotional Intelligence or EQ (emotional quotient) is the ability to identity, manage, and reason with emotions. It is an important factor in interpersonal communication and in the business world as well.

EQ enables us to understand the emotions in ourselves and others. It also allows us to use this understanding for making decisions and communicating with others. Intelligence and emotions were once considered contrary to each other. But not anymore. Researchers have been increasingly interested in how emotions and moods influence how people behave and make decisions.

Let’s have a look at how EQ can play a critical role in the workplace and also be an important factor for predicting success in life.

Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace

While a high EQ is not a necessity for every job, it can certainly give a competitive advantage. Professionals with high EQ are able to empathize with others and have good work relationships. Research indicates that such people tend to be rated higher on measured leadership abilities.

Another advantage is that a higher emotional quotient improves your ability to resolve conflicts and assists in your decision-making process. Your EQ can affect how you interact with fellow workers as well as how you handle stress and conflicts. It also affects your overall performance.

This applies not only to managers and CXO level executives but also to all other professionals, like you and me, who want to succeed in the workplace and move up the career ladder.

The majority of hiring managers value their employees’ emotional intelligence over their IQ. Your EQ may make or break your success, regardless of your career path.

Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a valuable skill, which can be improved with training and practice.

How to improve your Emotional Quotient

• Self-awareness

Improving your self-awareness is the first step for increasing your emotional intelligence. It enhances your ability to identify your emotions and also to understand their triggers and their impact.

For improving your self-awareness, you first need to identify your emotions. Next you need to identify what triggers that particular emotion. A trigger can be anything such as a condition, a noisy situation, or a show-off co-worker. Try to take some feedback from a trusted friend or family member. You now need to accept your feelings without judging.

• Self-regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to control certain impulses and moods. For improving self-regulation you first need to understand your emotions through self-awareness. Next, you need to believe in the power of Pausing and Breathing.

The idea is to pause for a moment and take a deep breath before reacting. This will give you a chance to calm yourself down, take control of your emotions, and think about the other person’s motivation before reacting. I agree, this isn’t easy. Especially when emotions are running high. But, all we need is to  practice. After all, emotions don’t control us!

• Social Awareness 

Social awareness is the ability to recognize others’ needs and emotions. This allows you to better handle a situation since you consider what people want and how to communicate with them to meet that need. Poor social awareness may result in awkward silences and hurt feelings. The good news is that you can practice consciously to develop this skill.

You can work on your listening skills and practice active listening. This will allow you to understand the complete message of the conversation. You should put more effort into your interaction with other people while identifying their emotional state.

• Motivation

Motivation is what arouses you to act towards a desired goal. Emotionally intelligent professionals usually find a solution in a calm and rational way for any problem they encounter. This is how motivation drives emotionally intelligent people to be more productive.

People with high EQ tend to focus on acquiring an obvious reward and avoiding punishment. But they also desire and appreciate intrinsic rewards, for their own satisfaction.

You will get a clear advantage once you are motivated intrinsically because now you’ll be motivated from within by factors such as enjoyment, satisfaction, and internal growth.

As they say – Monetary rewards are not a substitute for intrinsic motivation.

Ishani Singh

Ishani works as Manager – Social Media & Strategy Big Ideas HR Consulting Pvt. Ltd. and also as a Freelance Digital Marketer. She has a knack for problem-solving and also enjoys writing. She loves to share her views and knowledge with the readers by the medium of her blogs.  

www.bighrc.com/