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You walk into a crucial team meeting with your boss. You notice that some people are fidgety, confused, or worried about the outcome of the meeting. They are thinking about things that could go wrong and wondering whether they will be reprimanded for their dismal performance. On the other hand, there are those who calmly sit and wait for the meeting to start with a relaxed smile on their faces.
Why do different people react differently to the same situation? The answer lies in their emotional intelligence skills. Until a few decades ago, emotional intelligence was not even formally recognized in the professional world.
But if you look around today, it’s evident that emotional intelligence soft skills, also called Emotional Quotient, have emerged as an essential ingredient needed to climb the ladder of success in the workplace.
Emotional intelligence skills basically mean our ability to use emotions in tandem with our reasoning and other cognitive abilities.
Components of Emotional Intelligence
Imagine a colleague who evokes a strong negative emotional reaction from you. You are tempted to snap at a colleague who keeps criticizing every suggestion of yours in meetings. But you know an outburst in the office will reflect badly on you. So you refrain from reacting negatively and remain calm and polite.
Going against one’s instinctive urge to react to provocation is a sign of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. If you want to improve your interpersonal skills, read on to learn about the five components of emotional intelligence:
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Self-Awareness
The first step of your journey to developing emotional intelligence and social skills is learning self-awareness. Self-awareness is your ability to know and understand your own emotions. It is one of the key aspects of emotional intelligence.
You need to be able to recognize your emotions so that you can express them in the appropriate way. Sometimes there is a difference between how one feels in the workplace and how one is expected to behave socially. Understanding this difference is possible only when you have self-awareness, which will help you use the behavioral skills of emotional intelligence you need to succeed in life.
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Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the next on the emotional intelligence skills list you must be well-versed in. Self-regulation of emotions does not mean concealing your emotions, but it simply means controlling and managing your emotions.
You can self-regulate your emotions by using communication skills in tandem with emotional intelligence.
Self-regulation allows you to choose the right time, place, and medium to express your emotions. This is an invaluable skill that can also help you with conflict management and the de-escalation of conflicts.
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Social Skills
If you want to be successful in the social arena, then social skills are the key to your success. You must understand the role emotional intelligence plays in communication skills. Good communication is not just about thinking clearly and speaking articulately, it is also about being aware of the person you are speaking to, the setting, and their emotional state. This is where social skills come in.
In the corporate world, you need to focus on how to improve emotional skills if you want to connect better with your colleagues. Similarly, you can also use emotional intelligence communication skills to build a strong rapport with your superiors. Social skills include active listening, verbal communication skills, and leadership skills.
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Empathy
Empathy is one of the best examples of emotional intelligence and communication skills. Empathy is the ability to understand other people’s emotions. It is a key component of emotional intelligence.
Imagine you come across a colleague who is upset about the pandemic. It isn’t exactly a part of your job description to discuss these things in the workplace, but if you walk away and ignore them, it displays a lack of empathy. (https://skyhighdominicana.com) Empathy lies in recognizing their distress, encouraging them to share their troubles, listening to them with care and concern, and responding in a reassuring and authentic way. Doing this will not make you seem unprofessional; rather, you will be seen as a highly open, respectful, and mature person by your colleagues and acquaintances.
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Motivation
Another key component of emotional intelligence is motivation. It pushes you to achieve your goals and improve the quality of your life. While it’s true that having good emotional intelligence skills plays an important role in being successful at the workplace, career success cannot be your only motivation for inculcating self-awareness, self-regulation, and empathy in your behavior. At the end of the day, emotionally intelligent people are so because they genuinely care about being authentic individuals. They want to be true to themselves, and respectful and considerate of others.
Conclusion
You have to undergo emotional intelligence skill-building if you want to achieve success in your work and in life. Those who understand the value of emotional intelligence skills meaning will work hard to develop them. They understand that by effectively using emotional intelligence, they can take charge of their lives and achieve their goals. Such people do not step back from accepting and pursuing any given task. They constantly focus on how to develop emotional intelligence skills, and eventually prove to be great examples to others who wish to master skills to develop emotional intelligence and lead great lives!
Explore topics such as what is emotional intelligence, examples of emotional intelligence, and emotional intelligence at the workplace in our Harappa Diaries section and to learn how to be more emotionally intelligent at the workplace.
