Over the past few years, emotional intelligence (or EI for short) has become one of the most popular leadership theories in business. It looks at how well you manage your own emotions and those of others to improve performance.

Many believe that being emotionally intelligent is an essential quality for leaders to have. The term was coined back in 1992 by Daniel Goleman, who published his book with the same name. Since then, it’s been discussed in various formats such as workshops, courses and seminars.

There are several different models of emotional intelligence. Some focus more on understanding your feelings and managing them, while other areas look at showing empathy to motivate others.

This article will discuss some ways that emotional intelligence can help you in your career and this week we’ll talk about why it’s important to develop your EQ.

Why should I care about emotional intelligence?

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Emotions play a big part in social interactions so if you don’t take time to control yours, they can have negative impacts on people around you and yourself.

In fact, a lack of emotion regulation is considered a mental health condition because of the way it affects someone’s day-to-day life.

If you want to be successful, you must learn how to regulate your emotions. This isn’t just something you do once and then forget about, it’s a skill you work on every day.

Relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance

Over the past few decades, there has been significant interest in finding ways to improve people’s emotional skills. These strategies focus not only on helping individuals recognize their own emotions but also promoting goal-oriented motivation and effectiveness in relationships.

Research indicates that having high levels of emotional intelligence (EI) is related to success at work. Employees with higher EIs are more likely to be engaged with their jobs, to use appropriate language when talking about others, and to show empathy for colleagues. They may also feel more motivated at work because they understand how their actions influence other people.

However, it is important to note that while being emotionally intelligent is linked to greater workplace success, this does not mean that everyone who lacks emotional control is ineffective. In fact, some studies suggest that highly emotional people can have better career outcomes than those who tamp down their feelings.

Emotionally intelligent professionals learn how to manage their moods and stressors outside of work, which helps them retain their employment. However, you should remember that even though someone may seem outwardly calm, they may be feeling very stressed or uncomfortable.

How emotional intelligence affects performance

Over the past few years, there has been a rise in interest in what is known as “emotional literacy” or “EI.” Some people refer to it as “crystal-ball gazing” because of the way it looks into the future to identify how emotions will affect behavior.

This aspect of EI can be categorized as understanding your own feelings and those of other people. It also includes identifying appropriate levels of emotion for situations and controlling these emotions when they arise.

Many employers now require employees to take an online test to determine if their employee EI is at a professional level. If this sounds like something you would like to do (or are already doing!), then read on!

Emotional quotient or EQ is not just a personality trait — it works both independently and in relation to another characteristic called social skill.

Social skills include things such as empathy, self-awareness, motivation, and teamwork. Having high EQ means being more aware of yourself and others, but also using that knowledge to motivate yourself and contribute to team efforts.

Ways to improve emotional intelligence

Recent research has shown that people who are more emotionally intelligent show better regulation of their emotions, in addition to using positive emotions for motivation. These individuals also use reasoning as a tool to understand what is happening around them and why things have occurred.

Emotionally intelligent people perceive emotion in others more quickly and accurately, which helps you identify how other people are feeling and whether they seem stable or not. They may also be able to recognize when someone else is experiencing an emotion similar to your own and apply this knowledge to help you determine how they should feel about something.

When it comes time to motivate yourself, thinking through all the reasons why you should can play an important role in helping you achieve your goal.

Thinking about the rewards you want to receive and how these benefits fit into your life will enhance your motivation. Once you've identified the most powerful motivations, you can focus on creating experiences and situations that offer those rewards.

Research shows that people who are higher in emotional intelligence are more likely to experience less stress, suffer from mental illness such as depression less often, and live longer than individuals with lower levels of EI. Because prolonged exposure to stressful circumstances can negatively impact health, enhancing your level of emotional intelligence could have significant health benefits.

Seek out emotional support

In addition to helping you manage your own emotions, ET can help you identify and appeal to others’ emotions. This is what successful relationships are built upon — understanding other people and how they feel.

In fact, research suggests that having higher EQ means better success in both work and personal life.

By being aware of their colleagues’ feelings and behaviors, team members who have high EQ tend to develop strong working relationships.

They also recognize when someone else needs assistance or whether it’s time to move onto another person's task or project. They know how to motivate this person and get the same quality of performance.

You may be able to boost yours through practicing some of these strategies. For example, talking about things that make you feel good will probably do the trick!

But don't just aim to share those happy moments with everyone — that would take too much effort. Focus on developing your social intelligence by recognizing and understanding the different emotions people might have.

Make eye contact

When you look into someone’s eyes, your brain perceives them as more trustworthy than when you have to focus on their nose or mouth. It is a simple way to gain trust in others!

Making direct eye contact with people also creates an open channel of communication.

When we are not making enough eye contacts, it can be difficult for other people to feel connected to us. This may hurt our relationships and make it harder to form friendships.

It also makes it hard for us to connect with people who do not have very easy going personalities.

We need to realize that most people around us are trying to communicate something – whether it is information, thoughts, feelings, etc. - so by making eye contact they will get the chance to show these things to you.

If you want to improve your emotional intelligence, start practicing making more eye contacts with people.

Be consistent

Consistency is one of the most important things to look for when trying to develop emotional intelligence. You will have to work with this person every day, so it makes sense that you want to know what kind of person they are in order to predict how they will perform as well as if they’re performing their normal self at home.

It’s also important to remember that people can be different at work than they are at home. Your colleagues may put up more barriers to help protect your image or avoid confrontation, which could negatively affect performance. On the other hand, they might try to hide their weaknesses or lack of experience by doing things like agreeing with everything and never questioning anything.

Either way, you will need to learn how to manage these differences and whether there are any changes needed in the workplace.

Be realistic

Let’s look at this from another angle – what does it take to be successful? What are some of the traits that help people succeed in life? Obviously, being wealthy is not the key factor to success. Being healthy or smart is also important, but probably not as crucial as having certain qualities like self-confidence, motivation, and empathy.

So why would we think emotional intelligence is more important than these other qualities? Because, when you lack emotional intelligence, it can prevent you from achieving your goals and avoiding pitfalls along the way.

It can even keep you from reaching your potential because you don’t want to risk looking weak by showing how much you care about something.

Without emotional intelligence, someone might put off taking an important career step because they fear they won’t measure up. They may avoid asking for a promotion because they do not believe they deserve it.

Alternatively, they may go ahead with the promotion anyway, thinking that they don’t deserve praise and maybe even fearing what others will say if they get it. Either way, they stop themselves from getting the most out of their talent.

This article will talk more about how to develop your emotional intelligence. But first, let’s discuss what makes emotions special.

Be honest with others

As mentioned earlier, emotional intelligence is not just knowing what to do in a situation, but being able to recognize those signals and apply them properly. This can be tricky because we all have different levels of emotions that we perceive as “normal”.

Some people may feel more intense emotions than other people, which is why it is important to be honest with yourself and others. If you think something isn’t true for you, then don’t make an effort to prove it – chances are someone who knows you better already feels the same way.

By using your own knowledge or experience of a topic, you can come up with one or two reasons why a statement is false. You could even look into the person making the claim and see if there are any past examples where they said similar things.

If you find enough evidence, then expose the liar! But only if you are sure about it, and only if you are confident that your argument will hold water.