A few years back, the business world was only looking for people with high IQ. Since the idea of success was only limited to the fact that greater intelligence could lead to greater productivity.
However, similar research was in progress throughout this entire time that was aiming to recognize another important aspect of success. Yes, it was Emotional Intelligence or EQ. Since EQ is an inside-out phenomenon, unlike IQ, it is believed that people with high EQ have greater abilities to recognize and react to other people’s emotions as well as managing of their own.
Being a VP of Delivery and Operations myself, I think it is extremely important to understand the concept of EQ in this era of diversification and to change the work environment. Though we all are associated with corporate culture in some way or other, coping with emotions with an intelligent approach towards cultural backgrounds and personal orientations is more of a human thing.
In simple words, emotional intelligence is a path to navigate feelings and ensure better collaborations resisting stress or conflicts. And those organizations that understand the importance of EQ in every process, whether hiring, project management, or deliveries, have the advantage to raise exceptional teams and business longevity nurturing defined goals.
Thus, when it comes to the idea of long-term success and sustainability within the internal/external operations, it becomes vital to understand five major components of emotional intelligence suggested by Daniel Goleman, an American Psychologist, in 1995.
- Self-Awareness
This is the primary stage of exploring emotional intelligence, where one has to unite with own emotions. Self-awareness needs us to learn about our feelings and identify how they influence our behavior. This understanding helps us to build self-confidence and awareness that can keep us prepared to cope up with any kind of emotions emerging from inside or from outside sources.
- Self-Regulation
The next big thing that one has to tackle on their journey to explore EQ is self-regulation, I.e., the ability to cope with our feelings. Since self-awareness brings emotions to the surface, self-regulation gives control of them. This leads us to practice behavior traits that are socially more accepting and less impulsive.
Moreover, self-regulation also helps us to practice innovation, adaptability, foster trust and reliability that comes from the highly intuitive vision of emotionally intelligent people. All in all, it helps you to be more flexible and take charge of your actions more responsibly.
- Motivation
People who are emotionally motivated are usually more successful than those who have a high IQ. This difference in the performance comes from the fact that people who are emotionally motivated tend to have a stronger commitment towards their life goals as well as those of the organization for which they work.
- Empathy
The next important trait of emotionally intelligent people is empathy. Empaths are the people who could feel the emotions of other people, and this quality makes them easily recognizable at work and in our day-to-day life. These people are highly intuitive and could read other’s emotions well, giving them a perception of kind and understanding individuals who are dependable.
- Social Skills
Last but not least, people who are emotionally active could thrive on interpersonal skills. They are the people who are well-versed with communication, conflict management, and running negotiations in a creative manner. Moreover, these people have the command to lead collaborative projects since their social skills help them practice leadership traits for added teamwork capabilities.
But, the bigger question is how emotional intelligence could be deployed at the workplace or at the organization? And how it can help yield sustainable success?
Actually, there are a few tried and tested ways that I have been practicing for very long, and I believe they are easy to foster for anyone who needs to achieve collaborative success since it is the more sustainable one.
Develop Capacity
Since EI is defined by skills and behaviors, it is all about staying emotionally active at all times. Since tiredness or irritability could lead to loss of capacity for EQ, the likeliness of being more triggered by situations needs us to overcome aggressive body language and micro-management.
In other words, developing capacity is about working on a more disciplined approach to managing our energies and emotions. This can be done through practicing activities that can help calm your mind. Moreover, team leaders could try engaging with teams in routine to create space for ease during work hours. Moreover, bombarding the employees with work should be prevented when they are looking for vacations as an unplugging session or escape to a rechargeable environment.
Being Empathetic
Empathy could be defined as the process of understanding other people’s situations by stepping into their shoes. Though it is purely an imaginary process, practicing empathy could help you nurture strong leadership and a better network.
Being an empath could help you build more progressive relationships that are based on human values such as honesty and trustworthiness. Moreover, it is the path to create happy teams and productive collaborations.
A few steps that you can take to improve the empathetic side of your EQ are planning informal lunches, composed judgments, practicing listening, collecting feedback, and being a little vulnerable and original.
Acknowledge Vulnerability
Being vulnerable is not about impulsively displaying your emotions to the situation but about acknowledging the painful feelings. This is more about addressing your negative emotions like anger, frustration, or humiliation. Moreover, successful leaders always know the way to counter their vulnerable side and have a more positive approach during such situations.
Sharing an example from my personal experience, being indulged in quality assurance and testing services needs you to be very particular about the clients’ requirements. However, there are some anxious and overwhelming situations that make us humans deviate from the original goal, and that is the very moment where we lose our focus from success.
In these very situations, we should practice emotion-focused journaling to label our emotions and be more assertive in our communication process. These skills not only help you to acknowledge challenging situations in business but gives you the ability to handle communication with clients when on the verge of an emotional clash.
To Focus On Well-Being
Working on your emotional, mental, and physical well-being is the most important lesson that we all got to learn during the pandemic. With the recent pandemic pushing people across the globe towards anxiety, those who have practiced business resilience strategies are those who succeeded in their efforts to stay calm and think proactively.
Since the after-effects of the pandemic are still persistent, a few things that might help you cut off the cords of anxiety and prioritize your well-being could be limiting screen time, reduce isolation, practice meaningful activities, and have a self-care routine.
This may even involve sticking to leadership tactics that can create a culture of safety, fostering employee wellness, resist stress within teams, creating a positive work environment, and trying better time management.
Evolve Your Mindset
One thing that we fear or resist as humans are criticism, and it is very natural since most of us don’t like to talk about our shortcomings.
However, a better approach to emotional intelligence to foster business success is to use all kinds of feedback in a constructive manner. Any kind of negative feedback should be used as an opportunity to improve at the personal level as well as organizational levels. Also, it can help you change your behavior for effective leadership and add trust in employees.
The Crux
All in all, improving your EQ and identifying all the traits related to emotional intelligence needs you to cultivate social bonds and aim for collective operations at work as well as with yourself.
At present, there is an immediate need for business leaders across the world to engage in interactive sessions that can lead to team service opportunities, more voluntary efforts, and have improved coordination.
Moreover, people, irrespective of their positions, should come forward to share their thoughts on emotional intelligence or maybe share some resources with teams to yield a positive environment for definitive success.
After all, the only purpose behind creating an emotionally intelligent environment is to bring the core business principles to light and progress towards operational resilience and business growth. Also, reflecting on EQ could help you and your team to create better relationships with prospects and leading business deals that could be turned into lasting relationships.
Good luck!