Emotional Intelligence or EQ is emotional awareness and the ability to regulate how you interpret the way people, events, and other variables make you feel. Someone with a high EQ maintains clarity of thought and sensitivity to others’ emotional states even under stress and volatile conditions. In a world of ‘the new normal,’ such awareness gives you a leg up when dealing with pervasive uncertainty. 

How You Can Develop Emotional Intelligence?

The workplace can be highly stressful, especially now as we navigate remote work and the changing expectations of both employees and employers. Mental health in the workplace is being discussed more than ever before. Understanding and managing our emotions helps us make good decisions. Emotional Intelligence gives you the ability to control your emotions and respond to the emotions of others in a constructive way.

Many business leaders believe EQ might matter more than IQ. Fast Company recently dubbed it “a superpower for managing uncertainty and ambiguity. It allows us to improve our communication, display empathy for others, and resolve conflict, making for a healthier and more supportive work environment.

Good leaders are sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of their team. They can provide emotional support when needed and understand the necessary balance between personal and professional. 

Good leaders create productive environments of support and teamwork.

How Important is Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace?

From Gaining insight: A study about the importance of EQ in the workplace (Emotional Competence and Leadership Excellence at Johnson & Johnson)

(2) A study conducted by Cavallo (2006) in which more than 1400 employees took part in an 83 question multi-rater survey measuring a variety of competencies associated with leadership, including those commonly referred to as Emotional Intelligence. The results showed that the highest performing managers have significantly more “emotional competence” than other managers.

There was strong agreement among Supervisors, Peers, and Subordinates that the competencies of Self Confidence, Achievement Orientation, Initiative, Leadership skills, social intelligence, emotional regulation, Influence, and Change Catalyst differentiate superior performers. 

High-performing managers at the Johnson & Johnson Consumer and Personal Care Group were seen to possess significantly higher levels of Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Skills, and Organizational Savvy. All of these are considered part of the Emotional Intelligence domain. 

Emotional competence differentiates successful leaders.

“If the driving force of intelligence in twentieth-century business has been IQ, then . . . in the dawning twenty-first century, it will be EQ” – (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997)

Improving Your Team’s Emotional Intelligence

Understanding emotional intelligence will allow you to create a positive and driven environment at work. You can first build your EQ skills through thoughtful practice, then help instill these same skills and values within your team. 

Daniel Goleman, whose book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ is still the go-to resource on EQ, wrote a recent article in the Harvard Business Review about boosting your Emotional Intelligence with three easy questions:

• What are the differences between how you see yourself and how others see you? How you see yourself often differs from how others see you. Give yourself an external reality check by soliciting feedback from others. We’re often biased in our self-perceptions or completely unaware of the ways we express and understand our emotional interactions. 

• What matters to you? After you’ve processed the input you receive, choose to work on items at the intersection of the feedback and the areas that are most important to you. Think of your goals and see how improving components of your EQ overlay or impact them. This provides much-needed motivation as EQ development is a long game.
• What changes will you make to achieve these goals? Once you know which skills you want to work on, list the specific ways you’ll do it. Be precise. The more specific you are, the better you can turn it into a habit. Look for every opportunity to practice your developing EQ skill. This conditions your brain to behave in the way you desire when assessing the emotional impact of everyday scenarios.

As a leader, developing your emotional intelligence will make you more attuned to the nuances of the emotional states and motivations of the people around you. It also allows you to assess and react to a rapidly changing world with a clear head. You can grow your EQ with focused dedication and practice.

Brian Abbey is a freelance writer with 25 years experience in tech, marketing, higher education, and startups. An American, now living in Romania, he  creates content for multinational firms in Asia, Europe, and the United States, garnering over 100K readers on topics ranging from medical trends to artificial intelligence and university student engagement.

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