WHAT IS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?
Emotional Intelligence is the ability of a person to
understand their own feelings and others feelings in order to attain personal and
commercial goals, and maintain relationships.
In business environment Emotional Intelligence refers to
ability of a managers to understand their own feelings and those of the people
they work with in order to achieve business objectives.
The ability
to show empathy, which includes understanding others' thoughts and
feelings, helps you connect with others. Instead of judging or labeling others,
you work hard to see things through their eyes.
Empathy doesn't
necessarily mean agreeing with another person's point of view. Rather, it's
about striving to understand--which allows you to build deeper, more connected
relationships.
In recent years, some employers have even incorporated
emotional intelligence tests into their application and interview processes, on
the theory that someone high in emotional intelligence would make a
better leader or coworker. According to Daniel Golemon, (EI) is
concerned with four key areas: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness
and relationship management.
SELF-AWARENESS
Self-awareness is our ability to notice our feelings, our
physical sensations, our reactions, our habits, our behaviors, and our thoughts.
High self-awareness is a solid predictor of good
success in life, perhaps because a self-aware person knows when an opportunity
is a good fit for them and how to make an appropriate enterprise work well.
Quite frankly, most of us are running on “autopilot,” hardly aware of why
we succeed or fail, or why we behave as we do. Our mind are so busy with
daily chatter that we usually only self-reflect when something goes awfully
wrong.
Perhaps we stumble through a job interview or academic
test we thought we were well prepared for, or we handle something in our lives
awkwardly that we assumed we were good at, or perhaps we lose a romantic
partner over some misunderstanding where feelings got hurt.
Increasing self-awareness of false attitudes or inappropriate
behaviors requires peace of mind, time, attention and focus. Knowing
ahead of time that we can indeed change in positive ways through deeper
self-awareness makes it worth working on those personal qualities we most
value. But first we must look within ourselves through self-examination to see
what’s there, which is often less obvious than we think.
HOW TO IMPROVE SELF AWARENESS?
SELF-
MANAGEMENT
Self-management can be defined as what you do once
decision to accomplish any task is decided. For instance, once you decided that
you are going to start your own business, let say opening e-commerce website
like Daraz , how successfully you are going to implement strategies is
determined by Self-management.
Self-management is critical to reducing stress level. Why is
self-management important? It’s the ability to hold yourself accountable for
your work. Without proper self-management, many of us lose sight of goals or
cannot effectively prioritize our work.
HOW TO IMPROVE SELF-MANAGEMENT?
1.
AVOID MULTITASKING
It’s
understandable that we’d want to multitask. In the modern workplace, we’ve got
emails, office chats, and multiple tabs open on our web browser.
2.
ADMIT YOUR MISTAKES
As a manager,
it often falls to us to point out the mistakes of others. In self-management,
it’s essential to be able to admit your own mistakes. So many of us are afraid
to own up when we’ve done something wrong, but when we ignore it, we’re
impeding our paths to growth.
Instead of
avoiding a mistake, acknowledge it as soon as you can. Then move on. The more
comfortable you become with this process, the less you’ll find you need it.
Admitting failure - even your own - creates a teachable moment of growth. It’s
also one of the healthiest things you can do as a leader or manager.
3.
The “Golden Rule”
Whenever you are
in doubt, recall the “golden rule,” that says, treat others the way you would
like to be treated. The golden rule includes human kindness, cooperation, and
exchanges across cultures, languages, backgrounds and interests. No matter
where you travel, who you connect with, or what your audience is like, just
remember how you would feel if you were on the receiving end of your
communication, and then act accordingly. When we turn over the pages of
history, and observe that unethical communication has been one of humanity's
most potentially harmful weapon, at the same time, we see that the art of
communication has been instrumental in the quests of truth, wisdom, justice,
and peace.
4.
SELF-REFLECTION
Self-reflection
can be a time to think about mistakes or areas of improvement, but it should
also be used to acknowledge personal accomplishments and celebrate progress.
Remember, if you haven’t reflected on where you’ve been, you’ll have a harder
time understanding where you’re headed.
SOCIAL-AWARENESS
Being socially aware means that you understand how
you react to different social situations, and effectively modify your
interactions with other people so that you achieve the best results. The net
result of social awareness is the ongoing development of social skills.
One recent employer survey conducted by the Partnership for
21st Century Skills demonstrates that four of the five most important skills
for high school graduates entering the work force are linked to social
awareness: professionalism, collaboration, communication, and social
responsibility.
Here are 8 steps that will help you
become more socially aware if you integrate them into your daily
activities:
1.
IDENTIFY
Learn to identify which types of situations make you
uncomfortable, and
then alter your behaviour to make the best of your circumstances.
then alter your behaviour to make the best of your circumstances.
2.
CHANGE YOURSELF
Learn to become aware of behaviours in other people
that may cause you to respond negatively. As you are unlikely to be able to
change the other person, you must be able to modify your own behaviour to turn
the situation into a positive experience.
3.
AVOID PERCEPTUAL ERRORS
Take ownership for your behaviour and be willing to
apologize for perceptual errors.
4.
TAKE FEEDBACK
Ask others for their honest feedback about the way you
interact with them. Accept the negative feedback along with the positive
(without getting defensive) and make changes accordingly.
5.
NON-VERBALS
Be aware of your body language. Non-verbalcommunication is more important than what you have to say. Positive body
language will benefit your interactions with other people.
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Being able to manage and maintain relationships by
exercising relationship management skills is what employers are looking while
interviewing new candidates.
Dynamic business environment has increased the need to
work in a team as team-working results in increase in productivity. Conflicts
in team-working is inevitable but being able to resolve conflicts in a
constructive way is determined by how we manage relationships.
HOW TO IMPROVE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SKILLS?
1.
Inspiration
A good
relationship manager is able to inspire others. This skill focuses on using
other people’s wisdom in situations, as well as the ability to connect with
people emotionally. When a person has a vision, this quality relies on understanding
the entire purpose of the mission. This skill also includes involving others in
the vision and listening to their opinions and thoughts.
2.
Influence
Your
ability to influence others is vital in managing relations. You can learn,
acquire or improve your ability to influence by listening to other people,
making others feel important and making them feel like their opinions are
valuable. This strategy allows people to influence others by making the person
speaking feel significant.
3.
Developing
Another
important skill for relationship management is developing others. It focuses on
acknowledging people’s accomplishments and strong points, then offering
feedback to them. This skill is important because it helps the growth of
businesses. Employees who feel valuable and appreciated are likely to
accomplish more.
4.
Teamwork
To
manage relationships effectively, emphasize the importance of teamwork. Teams
that work well together result in higher performance and productivity levels.
Encouraging teamwork includes building and promoting strong teams that
communicate and work well together. It also includes encouraging participation
from all members and rewarding teams for good work.
5.
Initiating Change
Initiating
change is a skill that is used for recognizing when change is needed. When you
can initiate change, you challenge the status quo and make compelling, logical
arguments when change is needed. This is vital in growing businesses;
businesses must be willing to accept change and proceed with it. People with
good relationship management skills look for ways to overcome the barriers that
stop change.
6.
Managing Conflict
How well are you able to manage conflict in a
constructive way? Conflicts
can present numerous benefits in a workplace despite having many challenges.
For example, it can help in bringing about radical changes to alter existing
power structures and deep-rooted and outdated approaches which may have led to
complacency in the organization.
But on the other hand it could lead to resistance,
demotivated teams which can in turn bring about disturbance in operations or
undermining of quality of products s and services which could affect business
targets especially in factories and assembly line setups.
Functional
(constructive) conflict is a conflict which supports the goals of the group and
helps to improve its performance.
People
with this skill are able to accept different perspectives, and they demonstrate
self-control and respect for everyone. People who manage conflict well are able
to deal with difficult people and situations and look for solutions that
everyone can accept.
CONCLUSION
When it comes to what employers look for when trying to fill
a vacancy, it's about more than just the technical skills. Those abilities are
expected in order to fulfill the job duties. But it's often the emotional
intelligence that separate an average employee from a great employee.
Emotional intelligence skills are hard to learn as it
requires determination and consistent efforts. But once learned, the benefits
of (EI) are far greater than the efforts you initially put!
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