Emotions are what makes us human and is the basis of how we make decisions!
It regulates how motivated we are to climb the corporate ladder, who we pick as partners in life and business, and even down to the simplest tasks we do daily such as what clothes we put on and such.
It is then important to understand how emotions work and how to control it both internally as well as with your social interactions. To do this, we will break down the 5 attributes that make a model of Emotional Intelligence and how they each contribute to a higher EQ level.
1. An Awareness of Self
The Greek philosopher Socrates advised that we should know ourselves first. Simply put, we must learn to be honest with ourselves about who we really are.
This is hard because we always seem to be the heroes of our own stories right? We cannot do wrong in our own eyes and we are almost always as perfect as the day we entered this earth. What that means is, that we are unable to be truthful about what our weaknesses are and even, to some extent, what our actual strengths are as well.
To become true Masters of emotion, we must first find out what makes us tick to see what we can do during those situations.
Once we identify those potential situations – such as dealing with angry customers or co-workers – we can take a step back to collect our thoughts and remain calm.
2. Self-regulation
Once you have done a self assessment and have identified what situations are triggers and how you react during those times, you are able to understand your emotions quite well. The next attribute to be aware of is self-regulation.
Self-regulation is the ability to control your emotions which helps you remain calm in the face of stressful situations. It enables you to reflect on mistakes and difficult scenarios to identify lessons that could be learnt.
Without self-regulation, we are more likely to blow up whenever things don’t go our way. We tend to criticize mistakes that we, and our team, make. This cuts into an important time in development, where instead of learning from our mistakes, we spend too much time blaming ourselves and others.
The world we live in now is changing at a rate never seen before, and if we cannot control our emotions and learn to adapt, we will soon be left behind.
3. Empathy
This attribute is the one most identifiable to what EQ is. Empathy is the ability to read and relate to the emotions of others around you. This is an essential skill to have in order to fit into any social setting.
In the business setting, having empathy allows you to connect, build relationships, and earn the trust with people you interact with. This would include team members, clients, and your bosses.
It also necessary for understanding cultures different from your own, new business environments and avoiding conflict stemming from misunderstanding.
The ability to create strong relationships and build trust contributes to increased loyalty which are integral to successful businesses.
4. Motivated Teams
Emotionally intelligent individuals and teams are able to stay motivated and motivate each other!
Teams with high EQ are more likely to be passionate about what they do and strive to create excellence within their environment. It encourages leaders to improve operations, to ask the hard questions about their teams, and to work through adversity.
It also drives team members to achieve set goals because they are passionate about those goals and not because of rewards.
5. Interpersonal Skills
As I have mentioned before, social skills – or Interpersonal skills as it is now called – are essential to fit into a social group and this includes work teams and organizations. This is a culmination of the rest of the attributes – it is putting all the attributes associated with EQ together.
Having interpersonal skills means having the ability to understand people, develop strong relationships, motivating others and doing all these in a friendly way.
For organizations to work, teams need to work together to achieve the goals they have set. Having the skills to create relationships and motivate each other to hit those goals are definitely essential in today’s world don’t you think?
Call to Action
Now that you have a grasp of the different attributes of Emotional Intelligence is – Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Empathy, Motivation and Interpersonal skills – I hope that you’re encouraged to develop it within your life.
Not only does it benefit your professional life, but it can also be helpful in your social life as well. As I’ve said before, much of what EQ is allows you to fit into society better.
How much Emotional Intelligence do you think you have?
Do you think that EQ is as important as we think it is?
What, if any, are occupations that you think does not require high EQ?
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Alfred Tora 
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