Importance of Emotional Intelligence at Workplace

Sushanta Das
4 min readMar 24, 2022

To most, emotional intelligence is simply a trait from soft skill training courses. However, in reality, EQ (/or emotional intelligence) is a trait that improves interpersonal relationships personally and professionally. Having high EQ can help you with the ability to manage emotions and understand a business culture very well.

According to the five components of emotional intelligence, these traits help sustain the workplace better. They are Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social Skills.

The Five Components: Their Feature

Let’s see how were the five components outlined by the famous psychologist Daniel Goleman in 1990.

  1. Self-Awareness

The ability to recognise your own emotions and acknowledge where they stem from is a sign of emotional intelligence. It’s important because it helps you realise what triggered those feelings, which will allow for better self-awareness on how we feel about things going through life.

2. Self — Regulation

With self-regulation, you can control and adjust your emotions to not affect other people around us. This includes changing how we look on the job by keeping a professional appearance when dealing with clients or customers so that they will have positive feelings about their experience working together.

3. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand what it feels like from someone else’s perspective. This helps people become more accepting and caring towards others, leading them down a path of becoming emotionally intelligent.

4. Motivation

When you have a positive emotional tone of voice, it can be easier to motivate yourself to do things. A more pleasant outlook on life leads us towards wanting the internal fulfilment that comes with achieving goals rather than relying solely on external rewards like money or recognition.

5. Social Skills

With the rise of social media, it’s important to know how you communicate and interact with other people. Having stronger social skills will allow for better listening and speaking to resolve conflicts more effectively. Social skills are essential tools that leaders need the most in leadership and management.

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important in Workplace?

Being happy isn’t just about getting what one wants but also knowing how they feel so that their needs can become a priority. If we’re not dealing directly from our own experiences, then there may always seem some external force, more pressing. Emotional intelligence is an important characteristic to have in the workplace because it helps you perceive, reason, and manage other people’s emotions.

Being emotionally intelligent also enables one to guide their coworkers who may be struggling or need assistance from them for various reasons. This can make an individual happier at work as well.

  1. Positive Interactions

Emotional intelligence is the key to success in any workplace. It’s crucial to communicate with coworkers, supervisors, or customers who may have different perspectives on what should happen next. High EQ can make all of those interactions positive.

2. Connecting Networks

Tied up in positive interactions, emotional intelligence opens the door for meaningful connections. Understanding others and coming out of an interaction with a more upbeat attitude can increase your chances of making strong friendships or relationships that will last you through life’s ups and downs.

3. Motivating Others

You can motivate other people to be more productive and reach their full potential by reading the emotions they are feeling. This will help you take control of your workplace while being responsible for guiding those who work under you, making it important if one wants leadership positions in future companies or organisations.

4. Handling High-Pressures

You can reduce the tension in a high-pressure situation by understanding how emotions work and what they mean. If you feel angry, frustrated, or upset, you could use this knowledge to cool down those feelings before entering into an argument with someone else who may have been causing problems for your team/company. This skill also comes in handy when looking towards starting leadership roles because it helps manage people’s moods effectively while still being professional.

5. Being open-minded

Being more honest and open about your own emotions can help others around you by allowing them to think deeply about how they are feeling. It also helps create a curiosity for others’ feelings which is an important step towards emotional intelligence.

Establishing Success and Productivity

Emotional intelligence is an important trait for boosting productivity. Those with stronger EQ levels have significantly higher sales numbers, so it’s easy to see how being emotionally intelligent can help improve your workplace dynamics and overall organisational performance.

Expert Mind Solutions is a Malaysia-based consultancy firm that helps its clients open up new opportunities and connect with others. For those interested in boosting your emotional intelligence, get in touch with their amazing HRDF claimable training or soft skills training programs.

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