Friday 4 January 2019

Understanding emotional intelligence and its effects on your life

You might think you're fairly intelligent, but are you emotionally intelligent? It's our emotional intelligence that gives us the ability to read our instinctive feelings and those of others. It also allows us to understand and label emotions as well as express and regulate them.



What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is being smart about your feelings. It's how to use your emotions to inform your thinking and use your thinking to inform your emotions. It's having an awareness of how your emotions drive your decisions and behaviours so you can effectively engage with and influence others. Individuals who are emotionally intelligent tend to be empathetic, can look at situations from an alternative point of view, are considered open-minded, bounce back from challenges and pursue their goals despite any obstacles they might face.

Why emotional intelligence matters

Researchers suggest that emotional intelligence is a better predictor of career success than an impressive resume or a high IQ score. Individuals with a low level of emotional intelligence can be successful, but they could be even more successful if they had a higher level of emotional intelligence. It is how well you can collaborate, how well you engage with others and influence. It's the stories you can tell, the way you can bring data to life in a way that connects with others. Those are the things that are going to set you apart.

Emotional intelligence tests

Behavioural scientists have created a number of emotional intelligence self-assessments, usually broken down into "your ability to manage yourself, your ability to manage relationships, your self-awareness and your social awareness". The results will be measured along with others who have taken the assessment to give some indication of where you fall on the spectrum from low to high emotional intelligence.

Another form of an emotional intelligence test is a 360 assessment, a process involving feedback from colleagues and supervisors evaluating a person emotional intelligence.

Can I improve my emotional intelligence?

From the earliest ages, children should be taught how to recognize their emotions, understand what those emotions mean and label them accurately in order to express and manage themselves. For adults who did not receive a solid education on emotional intelligence, improving will require some hard work. Pick one or two areas where you want to grow, and get some advice on how to best start to embody whatever factor of emotional intelligence you are trying to develop.

If you are trying to gain better control of your anger, for example, you might find a healthy outlet for it - whether it be yoga, meditation or boxing. Be intentional about that. Take active steps to do that. If you constantly surround yourself with people who believe just like you do, then you are hearing the same conversations, and you are not growing, and you are not learning to be open to perspectives.

How we talk to ourselves can also have a huge impact on our emotions and our health if that self-talk is not positive, we would never talk to another individual the way we often talk to ourselves.

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