Nobody could deny that intelligence is important to succeed in your career, however, what about emotional intelligence? Even though the concept of emotional intelligence has been around for a while, it’s still given less attention and importance, despite the fact that it can be a great asset for achieving success.
What is emotional intelligence? It refers to the ability of understanding emotions, expressing them in a healthy manner, identifying other people’s emotions and empathizing with them. In general, it refers to all the skills related to emotions and to the ability of managing them. These skills help you on both personal and interpersonal levels. It helps you have a better self-control, motivation and self-confidence. On the interpersonal level, emotional intelligence gives you what is known as “people skills”. You can communicate, be a leader, negotiate and work with others better thanks to these capacities.
These abilities are sought after in the job market. In today’s world, you need to be able to perform your job effectively, but also to be a good team player and a good leader. Most fields of work require the person to have good skills of communication and collaboration, for which you need things like empathy and self-control, linked to emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence can also help you in other matters. It usually makes you better connected to your needs and more adept at figuring out how to deal with stress and negative emotions, so you can avoid burn-out and manage the work-related stress without getting exhausted.
In general, people with higher emotional intelligence tend to receive better evaluations from their superiors and co-workers. They tend to be more successful in their careers and to perform better in their jobs. All in all, emotional intelligence has been found to be a stronger predictor for career success that traditional intelligence as expressed by the I.Q.
So emotional intelligence seems to be almost a requirement for a successful career. However, many people are not taught or even discouraged from exercising these abilities. The good news is that emotional intelligence can be increased and that any person can learn to improve their people skills with enough practice.
There are different exercises and practices you can use to boost your emotional intelligence. The choice of which is best for you will depend on the specific skill you would like to develop and your individual preferences.
For instance, a practice that is good for increasing awareness and self-control is meditation. The regular practice of meditation helps you become more aware of your inner state and identify what you are feeling. It also helps you manage stress and attain more control over your thoughts and feelings.
Another useful practice is journal writing. It would be important to write down your feelings, thoughts and the situation that made you feel a certain way. If you do this regularly, you can develop your ability to identify what you are feeling and control those emotions better.
For example, a person who has anger issues through this exercise might see that the situations that make them angry are those in which they feel powerless. Next time they feel that way, they can get a better hold of their anger, as they know where it’s coming from. The person can also seek to regain control over the situation so as not to feel anger over powerlessness.
Another technique is to work on one’s thinking patterns. If your thoughts tend to be on the negative side, like “I can’t do this”, “I always fail” and other like these, then you can work on changing those thoughts to more positive ones. It will help you experience more self-confidence and more positive emotions. For instance, instead of saying “I can’t do this”, you can think “I will do my best”.
In conclusion, emotional intelligence is very important for a successful career. It involves being able to work with one’s emotions, as well as to identify other people’s emotions. It allows for good communication and collaboration, two very sought workplace abilities. You can improve your emotional intelligence with different practices depending on which skill you would like to improve.
