Why Emotional Intelligence Matters Most
We go to work every day with one objective: to drive results.
We have our individual ways of doing this – we stay focused, we prioritize, we collaborate with others. As we work hard, we go through the motions of connecting with those we work with. How often do you stop and think about how your interactions affect others? It’s an important question and having an awareness on how you connect emotionally is important.
A slippery slope...
I read earlier this year that a prominent executive at Yahoo! was fired not because he was lacking in the results area but because he couldn’t connect with his people. Leading with emotions has always been a slippery slope. Showing too much and you can appear weak or complicated. Not showing enough emotion and you come across as ice cold, robotic, unapproachable.
In today’s workplace, managing your emotional intelligence has become a highly important contributor to success, influencing productivity, efficiency team collaboration and trust. Which, by the way, impact performance and results. For some, harnessing emotional intelligence comes easy. For others, not so much. Despite business being all about numbers, it is also about relationships. And when we comfortably tap into our emotions (and help those around us do the same) the numbers will be driven exponentially.
Stuck on how to strengthen your emotional intelligence?
Spend time communicating:
Bring people together and share information. This also provides a great opportunity to listen to what people are thinking or saying. What you’re doing by communicating is building trust and proving you care enough to share.
Demonstrate social awareness:
Spend time figuring out what is happening around you. Listen, observe, ask. This will help you sympathize with others, putting yourself in other people’s shoes. Hard to do, but essential when leading. People need to feel as though you “get them.” Prove you do.
Commit to being more self-aware:
As you encounter situations be mindful and recognize emotions as they happen. This is a vital skill as it helps you better understand your strengths and weaknesses as well as the impact you have on how others feel.
