8 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important At Work
Emotions are the base are all problems. To solve them you must become self-aware of your emotional intelligence. This is extremely important at work when dealing with consistent stressful situations. Here are 8 reasons why emotional intelligence is important at work.
1. Better collaboration with others
Being able to recognize your feelings during specific stressful situations where there becomes a rise in how you feel will help you in many ways such as being able to collaborate with others. Emotional intelligence has to deal with understanding who you are and understanding the people around you.
No matter where you work, you will have to work with people one way or another. Some of them you will really like, and others maybe not so much. It’s normal to feel this way, but what needs to stay in control is how you feel even when you don’t approve of what is going on.
For example, if you were working on a group project with some colleges and one of your team members doesn’t like the idea you suggested. Instead of getting mad and telling them, they are stupid, the best thing to do is to ask why they think your suggestion isn’t up to the standards. By staying calm and asking questions you are able to see the root of the problem and tackle it. Who knows, you could even come up with an even better solution by talking things out.
2. Happy space
One of the worst things in the world is to feel as if you don’t belong somewhere. Especially at work. Emotional intelligence can be a very easy thing to navigate if you take the time to. It may take some work, but it’s like anything, all good things come to those who wait.
Creating a happy mentality and focusing on the positive in every situation will help create a happy workplace. Emotional intelligence is tied to having a happy workplace because it’s about staying calm and collected no matter the situation. It’s not about getting back at others if things don’t go your way. By being able to control your emotions you create a safe place for others and yourself to work in.
3. Solve problems
Practicing emotional intelligence techniques will help you easily solve problems everywhere you go. Companies pay more money to those who can solve problems under pressure effienctly. It’s all about taking a step back from the situation and see it from all points of view. When you are able to take your emotions out of the mix of a situation, you are able to make choices faster and more logically no matter what.
4. Love your job
If you are like the majority of us, you most likely want to love your job. For many of us, loving our job maybe far and in between. Growing your emotional intelligence will in return actually make you love your job more. The reason being is that when you can realize you are being negative with your interpersonal emotions, you can say to yourself that that’s not how you want to feel.
Emotions are special because you are able to choose exactly how you want to feel. If you want to be mad at a coworker than you can, if you want to be positive and show excitement, you are able to do so too. Take the time to think of your intention for the day and use that to guide you.
5. Get more done
This topic goes hand in hand with loving your job. High emotional intelligence means that you can take a positive and have a more proactive approach to every situation, but it also means that you can get more things done. If you love your workspace and enjoy talking to those around you, then getting more work done becomes a lot easier because it will start to feel enjoyable.
People who have low emotional intelligence tend to feel frustrated by those around them and in return don’t want to do any work. They become resistant to the workplace and cause others to feel what they feel. Negativity is a rippling effect, so be careful and you especially never want to be the one to start it all. It will always come to bite you right where you don’t want it to.
6. Great listener
Have you ever felt as if you weren’t heard? I think we all have. It’s an extremely daunting feeling and for that to change, we have to start listening more to the people around us. When you listen to others you are building a better relationship between you and that person.
Having high emotional intelligence helps with making the other people you work with feel valued and appreciated. This doesn’t even have to be done through what they say but by how they say it or through the use of non-verbal body language. Paying attention to these and acting upon it accordingly by taking your own emotions out of the equation will help you navigate successfully and will help you have better communication with colleagues.
7. Feedback
Now, if you are a manager at your workplace, you may have to regularly give your employees feedback on their performance. This can be a hard thing to do, but it definitely doesn’t have to. By being open to others and listening to what they have to say, people become more willing to take feedback.
A lot of the time people feel that they are working very hard at what they do and aren’t being recognized for it. When it’s time to give feedback, employees sometimes don’t want to take it because managers don’t always take the time to see the employee’s way of doing things leaving them feeling discouraged.
If you take the time to know how your employees work and feel about certain situations, then having them retain feedback will become easier since they know you were open to hear them during a time of need with regular tasks that needed to be accomplished.
8. Presence
As an employee with high emotional intelligence, you will realize quickly that people will gravitate to you a lot more naturally. Being able to control your emotions shows others that you respect yourself enough to not cause problems. You analyze situations accordingly and make the right choices from that point.
Of course, there will be times when our emotions will take control, but as long as you can keep a strong head on your shoulders the majority of the time, your presence at a workplace will eventually be acknowledged.
