Sharpen up your emotional intelligence
CAREER Five keys to unlocking your EQ potential.
Emotionalintelligence (EQ) is a valuable asset in the workplace as it allows you to assess and manage difficult situations appropriately and helps teams to be more effective. Can EQ be developed? There are certain keys to self-improvement in this area...
1 First, be self-aware. Self-assessment is important to
determine areas for improvement and to avoid repeating mistakes. US journalist Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, believes that people who are self-aware are honest and realistic when evaluating themselves and other people, and know when to ask for help rather than ploughing ahead with a pre-determined course of action. To determine whether a potential
employee has a high level of self-aware- ness, leadership expert and author Adele Lynn advises asking interview questions about previous conflicts in which the per- son has been involved, and how they were resolved, or asking how mood can affect their performance.
2 3 Channel bad moods positively
It is only natural to feel annoyed, frustrated and angry occasionally in the workplace. Emotional intelligence involves finding ways to use that occa- sional negative energy to your advantage and avoid transferring it on to others. One suggestion is to keep a journal of
workplace interactions, allowing you to reflect on your behaviour, work through situations and learn from any mistakes.
Don’t hide emotions While it is important not to burden
others with your bad moods, hiding your feelings and concerns can cause nega- tivity and bitterness to build up, resulting in more serious effects later. Author and strategic advisor Peter Bregman says
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An organisation performs best when the people in
the organisation know they can trust and depend on each other
real issues can be uncovered when peo- ple “feel safe enough to be vulnerable”. “An organisation performs best when
the people in the organisation know they can trust and depend on each other,” he writes. “But if people spend their energy hiding their feelings, that energy will leak out in negative and insidious ways, sabotaging your efforts and theirs.”
4
Read your impact on others Being emotionally intelligent
involves the ability to assess the impact of your words and actions on other people. This is particularly important for people in management positions. One employee may perform better after being set direct challenges to achieve, while another may achieve greater success through a more nurturing approach. Being able to gauge the most effective method for a group or individual will yield
positive long-term results. To assess this ability within a poten-
tial employee, Adele Lynn advises asking about situations where the person detected they needed to change their behaviour patterns, and what results that change achieved.
5
Have conversations in person Get to know people through one-on-
one and group conversations and meet them in person when discussing key issues and projects, particularly anything contentious. As Anthony Tjan writes for the Harvard Business Review Blog, it’s tough to “get the EQ right” in an email. “The biggest drawback and danger
with email is that the tone and context are easy to misread,” he writes. “In a live con- versation, how one says something, with modulations and intonations, is as impor- tant as what they are saying.” E
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