Have you ever encountered a person who is a master at managing their emotions? This person doesn’t get angry in stressful situations, instead confronts the problem with rationality and a sense of calm? 

How about someone who is so self-aware that they know, understand and constantly look to improve their weaknesses? They take feedback well, then use it to improve their performance? 

If your answer is yes, there’s a good chance that this person has a high level of emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence (EI-EQ) relates to a person’s capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. 

An emotionally intelligent person typically possess 4 key traits that sets them apart. These traits are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. 

SELF AWARENESS – a person’s ability to be aware of their own feelings and emotions 

SELF MANAGEMENT – a person’s ability to manage, regulate and express their emotions 

SOCIAL AWARENESS – a person’s ability to be aware of the feelings and emotions of others 

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT –a person’s ability to help create and grow effective relationships

Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence

Unlike your IQ, your emotional intelligence is extremely malleable. These lessons can be taught, learnt and implemented to make your emotions work for you, instead of against you.

Identify

To completely understand and adapt your feelings, you must first identify them. Identify your feelings and those of others around you. 

Guide 

Use these feelings that you’ve identified to guide your own thinking and reasoning in regards to decisions making, social situations and personal development. 

Understand 

Understand how and why your feelings might change and develop as events unfold, and as the future comes to fruition. Having an intimate understanding of your own emotions means you will be better equipped to recognise and deal with negative emotions that harm a situation more than better it. 

Stay Open 

Stay open to your feelings and integrate this into your decisions and actions. Being aware of your emotions will help you to make better, more informed decisions, leading to better outcomes of any situation or problem. 

Being emotionally intelligent has a number of benefits that can help improve many different aspects of one’s professional and personal life. 

EI-EQ contributes significantly to our: 

• Individual success at work 
• Success at work as a leader 
• Quality of relationships 
• Life satisfaction 

Are you ready to start making your emotional intelligence work for you?