One of the most essential skills to business and professional success today is emotional intelligence. You may be asking why emotional intelligence continues to be an increasingly important skill to possess in today’s professional world. In a simple sense, emotional intelligence is not a style, fashion, or trend. Several leading corporations across the globe have conducted research that proves that employees with this essential skill certainly affect the bottom line and companies with employees that have high emotional intelligence benefit from significant increases in overall productivity and sales. If you want to learn how to improve emotional intelligence, here are 5 practical ways.
1. Control Your Harmful Emotions
You’re less prone to become overwhelmed when you are able to control your negative emotions. This is often easy to say than to put into practice, right? But you can try this: in case one of your workmates is upsetting you, do not be judgmental. Instead, give yourself some time to evaluate the situation in various perspectives. Try to be objective about the situation so you don’t get irritated easily. Try to be more mindful in the workplace and you’ll see how your perspective will change.
2. Be More Assertive When Communicating
Assertive communication helps a lot when you want to earn respect without being seen as too passive or too aggressive. People who are emotionally intelligent know how to express their needs and opinions in a direct way while being respectful to others.
3. Learn To Be An Active Listener
During conversations, an emotionally intelligent person will listen keenly for clarity rather than just waiting for his/her turn to talk. Try to make sure you understand clearly what someone is telling you before you respond. You should also pay attention to body language during a conversation. This will help you avoid misunderstandings, give the listener an opportunity to respond appropriately, and demonstrates respect for the individual you are talking to.
4. Practice Self-Awareness
People who are emotionally intelligent are intuitive and self-aware. You should learn to be aware of your own emotions and how those emotions can affect the people around you. Make an effort to pick up on the emotions of others and their nonverbal cues in a conversation, and use that information to improve your communication skills.
5. Know What Stresses You
Learn to understand you major stressors and be proactive to avoid them as much as possible in your life. For instance, if you know that taking your work home will leave you stressed, avoid it and postpone it until the next day.
How to improve emotional intelligence, usually evolves over time if you have the desire to enhance it. Each challenge, situation faced, or person you interact with offers a good opportunity to learn and test your emotional intelligence.
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