Why is Emotional Intelligence important in the workplace?
We sometimes feel angry, irritated, or emotional at work especially when we have tons of workloads, endless meetings, or even misunderstandings with our co-workers. As humans, emotions are completely normal in any circumstances — even anger. It affects our reaction, thinking, and rationality. We tend to react differently and usually go into fight-or-flight when we are angry.
by Jam Buenavista, BusinessTrends Marketing
August 11, 2022
Psychologist Daniel Goleman has developed 5 components of emotional intelligence and how it can be used in the workplace:
1. Self-awareness
You can comprehend your emotions and what triggers them. Being aware of your emotions will help you observe your reaction and understanding in a difficult situation where extreme emotions might arise.
Help your workmates to understand you as a person and your trigger points by showing self-awareness. Let them know what makes you angry, happy, or even stressed. Knowing ourselves is a powerful trait where people will not guess anymore because actualities will truly come from us.
2. Self-regulation
Controlling your emotions will not just create a better reaction but is also a rational and strong move. Your ability to control any emotions under a hard situation will reflect on you as a professional individual. Your ability to maintain calm under difficult circumstances is one of the most powerful self-regulating practices.
In case of escalation or confrontation, self-regulating your emotions will help you react differently and professionally. This practice will help you prevent regretful actions or words towards other people. At the end of the day, professionalism will still be one of the strongest factors of an individual in the workplace.
3. Motivation
Also perceived as desire, motivation helps you do something which can also relate to emotional intelligence as it affects how you feel towards something. Having your motivations will keep you doing things for the specific goals you are trying to reach and achieve.
Whenever you are motivated, you are more eager to finish the tasks assigned to you. It is also your way to fulfill your goals for the day or even for your lifetime. A highly emotionally intelligent person will maintain optimism within their work environment, this can contribute to better performance and healthy relationships with co-workers.
4. Empathy
Understanding one’s feelings and emotions show compassion and sensibility. Empathy helps you handle difficult situations in the workplace. Honest conversations build a successful professional and human-centric relationship. We all have different tolerance in every situation and the ability to put ourselves in different perspectives reflects good professional character.
In times of argument or difficult discussion in the workplace, dismay or disappointment may arise, and empathy for your co-worker’s point of view or sentiments will make you see the bigger picture and understand where they are coming from. Reacting without acknowledging will likely create a much intriguing and intense argument.
5. Social skills
These are powerful tools for communication and interaction within the work environment. Effective communication with respect and understanding allows you to listen to others, voice out your thoughts, and focus more on the possible resolution in every escalation that may arise. People who have great social skills can sit and listen to others as they understand that every voice in the workplace matters. Whenever it is needed, they are also able to say the right things at the right timing which will help a difficult situation to subside.
Improve your social skills by practicing effective public speaking, being an active listener, and attentiveness to non-verbal cues. These factors will help resolve a conflict in the workplace.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/emotional-intelligence-importance
https://leaders.com/articles/personal-growth/emotional-intelligence-in-the-workplace/
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