Emotional Intelligence by Beatriz Amaral

Emotional Intelligence by Beatriz Amaral

 Emotional intelligence, as the name suggests, is a type of intelligence, yet, emotional intelligence is not the usual type of smartness since there are people with a high IQ but with low EQ. Actually, the people with the highest IQ’s often have a low EQ. However, emotional intelligence isn’t as stable as general intelligence is considering that emotional intelligence is a type of intelligence that people can work on and develop like a muscle or skill. 

 This matter is really important in our personal lives, of course, but is also very important in the business world whereas emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage not only one’s own emotions but also the emotions of others.  

 Therefore, there are five main skills in emotional intelligence:

1. self-awareness
2. motivation
3. self-regulation
4. empathy
5. social skills 

1. Self-awareness

 Self-awareness is the ability to accurately recognize your emotions, strengths, limitations, actions and understand how these affect others around you. Influencing those around us and supporting our own well-being requires to be self-aware.

2. Motivation

 Motivation is a reason that moves you and stimulates you to act in a certain way to achieve particular goals. Yet, motivation can be a tricky thing since sometimes it is really easy to get motivated, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement and other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to motivate yourself and you're trapped in a death spiral of procrastination. 

3. Self-regulation

 Self-regulation is the capacity to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods and it is as basic as being able to think before acting. Even though self-regulation is a workable thing, your ability to self-regulate as an adult as roots on your development during your childhood since that’s an important skill that children learn both for emotional maturity and later social connection. And yes, self-regulation is related to mindfulness.

4. Empathy

 Empathy is the capacity to share and understand another’s state of mind and emotions of other people. It’s a powerful communication skill that’s often misunderstood. However, too much empathy can interfere with rational decision making, causing people to lead with their heart, and so, feelings, rather than their head and lose a more general perspective because of overly empathic behavior.

5. Social skills 

 Social skills are those we use to interact and communicate with other people. These skills occur verbally and non-verbally through gestures, body posture and even your personal appearance. Concentrating on relationships will help you to get a job, get promoted and make some new friends. Social skills can develop your happiness and satisfaction and give you a better opportunity in life. 

 Emotional intelligence can help you to build trust and influence, strengthen relationships and to lead with resilience. Becoming more harmonized to your emotions allows you to determinate how to use those feelings more productively to make more sagacious decisions, defeat negative thoughts, control yourself in unstable situations, or understand others when they act in a way that surprises or angers you. Emotional intelligence can help you approach a situation in a way that takes the human element into account. 

 To improve your EQ you can:

• Observe how you react to people. Do you judge before you know all of the facts? Do you stereotype? Examine fairly at how you think and interact with other people. Try to put yourself in their place, and be more open and accepting of their points of view and needs.
• Study your work environment. Do you seek recognition for your accomplishments? Humility can be a wonderful trait, and it doesn't mean that you're shy or absence of self-confidence. When you practice humility, you say that you know what you did, and you can be quietly confident about it. Give others an opportunity to shine – put the focus on them, and don't worry too much about receiving admiration for yourself.
• Do a self-evaluation. What are your flaws? Are you willing to accept that you're not perfect and that you could work on some areas to make yourself a better person? Have the strength to look at yourself sincerely. That can change your life.
• Explore how you respond to stressful situations. Do you become upset all the time there's a delay or when something doesn't happen the way you wanted? Do you condemn others or become mad at them, even when it's not their blame? The capacity to stay calm and in control in hard situations is highly appreciated in the business industry and outside it. Keep your emotions under control when something goes wrong.
• Take responsibility for your acts. If you damage someone's feelings, apologize immediately and don't neglect what you did or avoid the person. People are usually more willing to forgive and forget if you make an honest effort to make things right.
• Examine how your actions will harm others before you take those actions. If your decision will influence others, put yourself in their place. How will they feel if you do this? Would you want that to happen to you? If you must make the move, how can you help others deal with the consequences?

Even though ‘’regular’’ intelligence can help you to succeed in life, emotional intelligence can put you in higher places such as relating well to others and achieve your goals since, as it’s known, the smartest people are not the most successful or the most fulfilled in life. You probably know people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships that’s why emotional intelligence is such an important thing, not only in your personal life but also in your professional life.