In today’s job market, hiring people who are experts and have technical skills can attract hiring managers. They focus on getting individuals who have high emotional intelligence and that recognises, understands and manage their own emotions while also being able to influence others. This is not something that can be taught though. This is a skill that needs to be practiced and realised through the help of EI training which is to aim of bring you closer to explore and develop your own level of intelligence.

People with low emotional intelligence:

• Often feel misunderstood
• Get upset easily
• Become overwhelmed by emotions
• Have problems being assertive

People with high emotional intelligence:

• Understand the connections between their emotions and how they behave
• Remain calm and composed during stressful situations
• Are able to influence others toward a common goal
• Handle difficult people with tact and diplomacy

Why is emotional intelligence important?

This can help you avoid situations that are caused by impulse. Managing and understanding your own emotions can help you become successful personally and professionally. This is also important to those who want to excel in their career and create a difference in the workplace.

To foster strong and successful relationships in the workplace, it is important to have social skills and awareness. These abilities come through emotional intelligence which supports leadership, influence, conflict management and communication. Having high emotional intelligence means having the potential to create room for employees to better understand their significance in the company.

This helps inspire, guide and develop team members to produce and increase performance and productivity.

Here are important areas that revolve around emotional intelligence at the workplace

1. Active listening

By listening and paying attention to the people you work with, you develop a strong emotional intelligence. These people avoid conflict in interrupting someone while they are speaking. This helps prevent misunderstanding and makes others feel respected and valued.

2. Self-awareness

To strengthen your emotional intelligence, it is important to be aware of your own emotions and responses to those who are around you. Only few people can communicate feelings in a way where they make everyone feel appreciated and less of a burden to speak with.

3. Accept criticism

In the workplace, those who do well in taking criticism often show the true value of emotional intelligence. Not everyone thinks and acts like the way you do, and some even feel defensive and insulted when being criticized but by understanding the reason behind such criticism on focus on working on it instead of complaining can help improve and demonstrate emotional intelligence.

4. Communicate clearly

In any part of your life, communication skills are very important because having a good idea of when or when not to speak about a certain thing is what makes a work-relationships work. This also helps show confidence in presenting yourself to others that you are able to make conversations in front of a variety of people.

5. Always be open-minded

No one likes a stubborn person. People with high emotional intelligence tend to accept different perspectives from different people. Not everyone will agree with your opinions and that people will often express their thoughts one way or another but that’s okay. These people are open to learning new things than just be stubborn.

6. Build strong leadership skills

You do not necessarily need to be a leader by title, but having strong emotional intelligence can bring out the leader in you. By practicing this, you are able to set an example to your co-workers and create an environment where anyone who can develop this skill can offer to give insight on problem solving and decision making to ensure productivity.

7. Stay calm under pressure

Pressure is unavoidable in the workplace. By practicing and maintaining a positive out look during stressful situations, this helps demonstrate how strong your mind and your emotional intelligence is. This shows others are mature you are in keeping yourself together despite of the situation around you.

8. Be more social and approachable

In a fast-paced company, you tend to meet new people more often than not. The best way to build relationships and stronger bond with co-workers is to be more approachable. This lets you show that you are friendly and positive and ready to help out your co-workers as much as you can. This helps you gain respect among the workplace and improve in your interpersonal and communication skills.

9. Stay motivated

Those who have high emotional intelligence tend to motivate and encourage the people around them while being self-motivated too. These people are admired for their abilities and confidence in others which makes them stay resilient in any type of challenges they may face.

10.Self-management

This is where all things come to place and practice. This shows taking responsibility for their own actions and well-being while doing the same for others. It shows how persistent and professional they are in terms of work relationships and how they do their day to day work.

In the end, this is not a demanding task but is considered a bonus in an individual. When everyone is able to practice and nurture the skill of emotional intelligence, it creates a better understanding for everyone involved and promote a safe workplace.

Further advice and insights from Experts

• Would you like to know if you have high emotional intelligence? Business insider has the 14 signs that you are already an emotional intelligent high performer. https://www.businessinsider.com/high-performers-emotionally-intelligent-signs-2019-4
• Helpguide has a great downloadable reference which can help you improve your emotional intelligence. Learn how to boost communication, achieve your goals and build better relationships. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm
• Did you know there are some downsides to being Highly emotionally intelligent? Harvard Business Review highlights the differences here. https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-downsides-of-being-very-emotionally-intelligent