Having excellent academic qualifications, a high IQ and even great technical skills to enable you to carry out your role at work are all very well, but increasingly what employers are looking for is emotional intelligence. Sometimes referred to as EI or EQ, emotional intelligence is essentially the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions, to perceive how these affect other people, to empathize with others and to manage your own feelings. Because these things all add up to our people skills and form the basis of our ability to manage relationships effectively, employers these days put more and more store by them.
So, what can you do to improve your emotional intelligence and be the kind of person whom everyone wants on his or her team? Here are a few tips:
- Own your emotions. If something upsets you, look at what you are feeling rather than what other people are doing.
- Accept your negative feelings, work out where they come from and then seek out a way to overcome the underlying issues.
- Always try to see the positive side of any situation.
- Learn how to cope with stressful situations by relaxing, or with feeling low by taking a walk or exercising.
- Listen twice as much as you talk.
- Respect other people’s feelings, but avoid people who invalidate or don’t respect your feelings.
- Pay attention to nonverbal signals in order to read others.
Emotional Intelligence is important also at home. Try replacing the above with family members and situations.
[Article first appeared in May 2011 issue of Family Times published each month by Play-a-Round Golf. To receive your own paper copy of Family Times with great articles and money saving coupons and ideas, just send your mailing address to starter@playaroundgolf.net and we’ll add you to the list.]
