Over the past few years, emotional intelligence (or EQ for short) has become one of the most popular leadership concepts in the business world. It sounds complicated, but it is not.

Underlying this concept are five key qualities that make up your level of emotional intelligence. These five traits are: self-awareness, motivation, empathy, relationship management, and control of emotions.

You can learn how to improve your own EQ by practicing each of these skills. And while they may sound like too many things at once, there are ways to work on them all simultaneously.

Self-aware people recognize their weaknesses and try to fix them. They also are aware of the strengths they have so they do not overlook them.

Motivated individuals know what needs to be done and take action to achieve their goals. People with high levels of empathy understand other’s feelings and use those experiences to motivate others.

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And when someone has achieved something important to you, you show respect by celebrating this success.

Finally, being able to manage your own emotions includes being able to focus your energy on only positive thoughts. This helps you stay productive and avoid distractions or negative influences.

Emotional intelligence is clearly related to leadership. Being a leader means motivating others to help you accomplish your goal, which requires understanding their motivations and encouraging them towards these goals.

Teach self-awareness

A key part of emotional intelligence is teaching yourself to be aware of your emotions. This can be difficult at times, especially if you're not used to being emotionally present.

Many career fields require frequent interaction with people, so it's natural to feel some level of arousal when talking about important topics or meeting new people.

That's okay! Most people start off by gathering information through listening before speaking. It's getting into the habit of stopping that can prove tricky.

Once you've learned how to balance speech-making, there are several ways to develop your emotional awareness.

Practice silence – for a few minutes each day– this works best if you have something you need to get done immediately after practicing silence.

Give up conversation for one hour every week to help hone your ability to contain your emotions.

Be authentic

Being authentic is more than just telling your colleagues what they want to hear. It’s not saying things that people want to believe, it’s knowing who you are and being true to yourself. Leadership can be fun when you feel like you’re expressing yourself authentically and making decisions from the heart.

Being authentic also means staying focused on what matters most by understanding how others perceive you. If you’re aware of how people view you, you can make better leadership choices by realizing why you made a decision.

If you don’t know the reason for a choice, you may need to reconsider the choice or find another one.

Be realistic

A lot of concepts in this area seem too simple or even fake. People who talk about emotional intelligence often have something more complex going on. They may be very good at putting on an appearance, but they can’t always feel emotions.

Some people think that being aware of other peoples’ feelings is all you need to be a great leader, but it’s not.

Being able to read someone’s emotions isn’t enough. It’s like watching a movie and only listening to the sounds. You gotta see what the characters are doing – otherwise, you won’t know what’s happening.

If a friend comes to you with complaints, you should listen to them, ask questions, and try to figure out why they’re upset. But then you must do something about it!

You have to take action by talking things through or solving the problem, which means changing something, coming up with a solution, or both.

Understand your reactions

Recent studies show that emotional intelligence (or EQ, for short) can have major impacts on your career and life beyond just helping you lead more effectively. In fact, research suggests it can help you achieve higher levels of leadership directly.

Emotional quotient or “emotional literacy” is one of the most important non-cognitive skills you can develop. It helps you understand your own emotions and those of others, and how to use this information to motivate them.

At its core, emotional intelligence means being able to identify your feelings and then thinking about what action to take before taking that step. This seems pretty straightforward, but there are many theories about why it is so difficult for some people.

Some hypothesize that things like socialization in early childhood make it hard to recognize and manage your emotions. Others think having very strong emotions makes it harder to relate to other people.

Whatever the reason, experts agree that developing your EQ is an essential part of growing up and leading a successful life.

Communicate well

As we have discussed, emotional intelligence can help you be a better leader. But what is that exactly?

First off, it is not being able to control your emotions. That would make anyone very unhappy and possibly even dangerous.

Instead, it is how well you communicate your feelings to others. It also includes understanding other people’s emotions.

This article will talk more about some ways you can develop your emotional literacy or “the knowledge of one's own emotion”.

Be consistent

As mentioned earlier, EQ is like having a second set of eyes that help you understand other people’s emotions. This is important because leadership depends heavily on relationships — with superiors, peers, and subordinates.

If someone feels valued by their leader, they are likely to perform well and work hard for them. But if they feel undervalued or even threatened, then morale will suffer and overall productivity will drop.

As a leader, make sure your staff knows how much they mean to you. Give them praise and rewards consistently, and ask about their day. Listen to what they have to say – be it good or bad – and respond thoughtfully.

Above all, use “transparent” language when referring to others. Don’t just call people names or talk down to them, but instead try to put yourself in their shoes and think about why they might be feeling unhappy.

That way you can figure out whether there’s something you could do to fix the situation, or if you need to address the issue more seriously.

Be inspirational

As a leader, you must inspire your team to keep going when things get tough. When times are good, people will always praise you for your leadership skills, but what about during hard times?

During these times, there is no one else in the room with you. Your colleagues may feel like they’ve been pushed aside or even asked to leave because nobody can do their job while you try to fix the problem.

As a leader, you have an obligation to create an atmosphere of trust and safety where employees can come together and work efficiently without fear of retribution or lack of confidence.

When something does go wrong, this emotional intelligence won’t affect how many people walk out the door; it will only make them stay longer until they find another opportunity.

In fact, according data gathered by Daniel Goleman in his book “Emotional Intelligence,” those who were high in EQ tended to earn higher paychecks than others their age.

He also found that workers who demonstrated strong empathy and interpersonal effectiveness earned higher respect from peers and superiors.

Be have good management skills

As mentioned earlier, leadership is not only about being in control of others, but also knowing when to let go and trust those around you. This includes trusting other people’s abilities and potential, as well as their tendency to make mistakes.

As a leader, your ability to manage emotions will matter. People may feel compelled to tell you things that they should probably keep to themselves, or even avoid you all together if they are feeling strong emotion towards someone else.

By having adequate emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to recognize these signs and prevent anyone from moving forward with poor performance because of personal issues.