Emotional intelligence in the workplace mostly ensures organizational sustainability in terms of financial growth and employee happiness. Emotional intelligence is the self-capacity to understand and control your emotions. Successful peoples are examples of proper management of emotional intelligence. As a result, they show the highest professionalism. The importance of emotional intelligence is unbelievable for all levels of employees in the workplace. There is a lot of importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know about their feelings and the effects of their emotions on surrounding people.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Every management staff of the organization should know “what is emotional intelligence in the workplace”. The organization will not be successful in case of practicing it whether the team leaders of the organization are not having enough idea about it or the benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace as well.
Emotional Intelligence as per Scholar: Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) has been defined as below by the scholar-
As per Chignell, 2018, “EQ refers to someone’s ability to perceive, understand and manage their feelings and emotions.”
Insights of Emotional Intelligence
Gardner’s classifications offer some insight into emotional intelligence as below:
- Interpersonal Intelligence: Detecting and responding to others’ moods, motivations, and desires.
- Intrapersonal Intelligence: Being self-aware and attuned to values, beliefs, and thinking.
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Components of Emotional Intelligence
There is a lot of importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Daniel Goleman presents five components of emotional intelligence in his book. These 5 distinct components of Emotional Intelligence (EI) are as below:
Self-awareness: Self-awareness is all about knowing your weaknesses, strengths, drivers, values, and impact on other people. In short, understanding yourself. Peoples with self-awareness are self-confident regarding their strengths and weaknesses, and also having thirst for constructive criticism. Self-awareness helps people to be emotionally intelligent and manage time properly. So Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) leads managers to complete the task within the scheduled time and prove their competency as well. A self-aware person usually can handle complications better and he learns from constructive criticism. Self-awareness is considered a vital component of emotional intelligence.
Self-management: Self-management is one of the components of emotional intelligence that refers to the ability to control and readdress disruptive desires. Self-management is also referred to as “self-control” and “self-regulation”. So, self-regulation is the ability to control one’s emotions or behaviors effectively in different situations. Self-regulation or self-management skill helps people to ensure more control over their career and eventually lead to more thrilling opportunities. Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) leads people to control the situation better over time constrain.
Examples of self-management skills in the workplace are as below:
- Reliability
- Stress management
- Trustworthiness
- Adaptability
- Time management
- Meticulousness etc.
Internal Motivation: Internal motivation or intrinsic motivation can result from feelings, thoughts, values, and goals. It helps people to do any work on their own, without expecting any external reward. Emotionally intelligent and motivated peoples are always smart enough and not motivated by money. They are typically resilient and optimistic to encounter any kind of disappointment. Intrinsic motivation is considered the best type of motivation as per psychology. Because internal motivation is highly powerful than external types of motivation in the practical work environment. Because intrinsically motivated peoples are-
- Committed
- Creative
- Persistent and
- Successful
Empathy: Empathy is an enormous concept in psychology. Empathy stands for experiencing someone else’s feelings which comes from the German Einfühlung, or ‘feeling into.’ Psychologist Edward Titchener (1867–1927) introduced the term “empathy” in 1909. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel other people’s emotional status. Empathy is the ability to understand another person’s thoughts & feelings in a certain situation from their point of view.
Types of Empathy:
There are 3 types of empathy which are as below:
-
- Affective Empathy: The ability to respond to other people’s emotions.
- Somatic Sympathy: The ability to feel another person’s feelings.
- Cognitive Empathy: The ability to understand someone’s response to any situation.
Social Skills: Social skill refers to building a relationship with other people for moving them in the desired direction. Emotional Intelligence in the workplace or EQ helps to improve social skills. Emotionally intelligent people can build a good rapport with their team members and other people in an effective manner. Emotional intelligence also enables people to avoid power struggles.
Examples of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Below are examples of high and low Emotional Intelligence/EQ that can clear your ideas regarding emotional intelligence in the workplace. High Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) drives advantages for the organization. These examples of emotional intelligence in the workplace will definitely help you to drive fast for the initiative of implementing emotional intelligence in the business or workplace. So, it is required to know how to improve emotional intelligence in the workplace.
People Listening to Others in Meeting
Generally observed in many meetings that some people didn’t listen to others or respect others’ opinions. They do shouting or argument as well without giving any valuable input. This is treated as low emotional intelligence in the workplace. On the other hand, if he allows others to talk, listens to them carefully, and provides good input then he is high in Emotional Intelligence/EQ. Listening to others’ problems, providing suggestions, and helping them to overcome the situation is also considered as having higher Emotional Intelligence/EQ.
The Openness of Expression to Others
The openness of expression to others is an example of emotional intelligence in the workplace. When a person feels comfortable speaking with others and expressing his/her problems and someone shows comfort in listening to others talk then it is treated as high workplace EI/EQ. On the other hand, if someone tries to express his thoughts and another person didn’t show any interest in hearing then it also can be treated as low emotional intelligence in the workplace.
Initiatives for Cultural Change
The organization takes initiatives for cultural change when it is serious regarding the practice of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Here, change initiatives are perhaps taken very seriously. On the other side, organizations can’t go for change whether there is low emotional intelligence in the workplace. Management will go for a changing culture whether there is high emotional intelligence in the workplace. If the benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace are described to the management then it will be easy to take the initiative for cultural change in the organization.
Flexibility
Emotional intelligence helps employees to work smart and to contribute the best output ever. A good sense of emotional intelligence in employees leads an organization to develop fast. The sense of emotional intelligence of the organization also makes employees happy. Managers having good emotional intelligence provide flexibility to their subordinates or team members. He never shows a strict attitude to complete a task on time. But tasks never stay pending due to the culture of emotional intelligence.
Freedom in Creativity
This freedom of creativity is considered a high EI/EQ in the workplace. Because employees can deliver creative output only after getting the opportunity of creative thinking by the organization. Keep in mind that if employees get an opportunity to think outside the box then it will enable them to contribute to organizational growth.
On the other hand, if an organization didn’t provide flexibility to employees and bound them to do work by following strict policies and procedures then it is considered a low EI/EQ in the workplace.
Outbound Culture
Outbound culture is one of the best examples of emotional intelligence in the workplace. The company has outbound culture, employees meet one another outside the workplace. This activity helps to develop team culture which is a good sign of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Most organizations think that this is costly and does not provide proven benefits to the organization which is not right at all. Outbound culture is considered an example of a high level of EI/EQ.
On another side, where employees can’t get enough opportunities to spend a good time with colleagues then it is considered as lower EI/EQ in the workplace. Practicing emotional intelligence in the workplace helps to build a quality relationship culture as well.
Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
There is much importance in emotional intelligence in the workplace. Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) brings a lot of benefits to the organization as well as to the employees. The benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace can be summarized below:
- Practicing emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace ensures employee motivation, ensuring more productivity of the employees.
- Practicing emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace effectively leads employees to a common vision.
- Emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace can change employees to be emotionally intelligent which helps in stress management and productivity.
- Emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace increases the communication system of the organization with business growth.
- Emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace ensures leadership culture.
- Emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace ensures smooth decision-making.
- Emotional intelligence/EQ in the workplace is the key to employee happiness and business growth.
The importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace is incredible. Because The importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace plays role in organizational development or sustainability which is the ultimate target of any organization.
How to Become an Emotionally Intelligent Leader?
Becoming an emotionally intelligent leader is the key to every leader’s success. It helps them to be more popular within and outside of their workplace boundaries. It is a matter of practice of the inner quality to implement at the workplace. Every person can be emotionally intelligent if they try to practice the components of emotional intelligence in the workplace or want to show it. Men have to try their best to practice the components of emotional intelligence, as women have higher emotional empathy.
Characteristics of People with High EQ and Low EQ
People with high EQ obtain the below characteristics-
- Greater empathy
- Handle conflict effectively
- Stay calm under pressure
- Have better decision-making ability
- Have the better problem-solving ability
- Accept positive criticism always.
People with Low EQ obtain the below characteristics-
- Low level of empathy
- Low ability to work as a team
- Have aggressive communication styles
- Avoid taking responsibility
- Don’t respect others’ opinions.
- Poor ability of problem-solving
- Poor ability of decision-making.
Emotional Intelligence Training in the Workplace
As emotional intelligence is an important factor in workplace success, an organization should focus on emotional intelligence in workplace training. Generally, peoples come into an organization from diversified cultures and work together. So, emotional intelligence training can align them with the organization’s mission, vision, and goal. Emotional intelligence in the workplace is the combination of some soft skills which can help employees to do better at their jobs. Emotional intelligence training is all about improving employees’ emotions and controlling the emotions of coworkers in the workplace.
Preparation of Emotional Intelligence Training Module
In every organization, the training program is arranged through the HR department. The responsible person should prepare the emotional intelligence training module in such a way that it must include all the components of emotional intelligence which are as below:
- Self-awareness: As per Travis Bradberry, “Self-awareness is the process of getting to know yourself from the inside out and the outside in.” Self-awareness is a vital component of emotional intelligence which helps the employee to understand how their behavior affects their colleagues. So, it will be the first attempt to add actions for improving employees’ emotional intelligence in emotional intelligence in the workplace training module.
- Self-management: Self-rolling emotions and reactions should be mentioned under self-management in the emotional intelligence at workplace training module. Self-management helps an employee to build a better relationship in the workplace. The organization should include self-regulation techniques so that employees can learn and implement them as well.
- Internal Motivation: Internal motivation or intrinsic motivation is considered the best type of motivation as per psychology. As a result, must have to include in the emotional intelligence at workplace training module.
- Empathy: Empathy is the capacity of understanding or feels other people’s emotional status. Details should be included in the emotional intelligence at workplace training module. So the empathy level of the employees improves fast.
- Social Skills: Social skills help to build strong interpersonal and intra-personal relationships. As a result, if management includes this in the emotional intelligence in the workplace training module then the emotional intelligence culture of the organization will be improved.
Emotional intelligence in the workplace ensures the best organizational culture and employee motivation toward sustainable growth. Management should focus on implementing emotional intelligence culture by considering the benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace.
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