How to Practice Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Emotional intelligence is something that managers need to possess, as it plays a big part in how successful you are at interacting with and connecting to your team. It’s the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as those of the people you are surrounded by at work. Those with a high level of emotional intelligence are able to determine what they are feeling, what those feelings mean and how those feelings can affect others. A manager with emotional intelligence is more likely to succeed as a leader, as they are more likely to stay in control and assess situations in a calm manner. Without emotional intelligence, leaders tend to end up shouting and losing their temper.

There are five key elements that make up emotional intelligence in leadership and these are:

• Self-Awareness - Someone who is self-aware always knows how they feel and how those feelings can affect other people. When you are a manager, being self-aware means having a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
• Self-Regulation - Self-regulating yourself means not making rushed decisions, not making emotional decisions, not verbally attacking others and staying in control as much as possible. As a manager, this is a vital part of building a team that respects you and your decisions. Someone who is unable to self-regulate might struggle to stay in control when under pressure.
• Motivation - It’s important to be motivated as a modern manager, as this motivation helps you to work consistently towards your goals and the goals of your team. Managing a team of people can be difficult, and motivation is vital if you want to keep going when things get tough. Motivation also helps you to uphold high standards for your work, which can be difficult when there’s a lot of projects on the go at once.
• Empathy - As a manager, having empathy is a key part of emotional intelligence. It allows you to better manage a team by being able to put yourself in the shoes of others. If someone is struggling and needs feedback, empathy helps you to do this in an understanding and fair way.
• Social Skills - Working as a manager requires you to work with a lot of different people, which is why good social skills are important. Social skills allow you to communicate with employees, to manage change and to resolve conflicts successfully. These skills are also helpful when it comes to gaining the support of your team and getting everyone excited about an upcoming project.

How to Practice Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Consider how you react to people and interact with those around you; do you rush into making a judgement before finding out all of the information, are you accepting of other people’s opinions and needs? Stereotyping, judging and not being open with those you manage is the opposite of emotional intelligence.

As a modern manager, it’s important to be proud of your accomplishments, but you need to practice humility alongside them. Instead of seeking attention for success, be quiet about your work and give others the chance to shine. This doesn’t mean that you are being shy or underconfident, it means you are giving other people the chance to showcase their capabilities.

Think about how your actions affect other people at work before reacting to a situation, as there may be a better way to approach things. If your decision will impact others, put yourself in their place and consider things from their perspective. If a decision is likely to negatively impact someone, consider alternative routes.

There are a lot of resources online that allow you to evaluate your emotional intelligence, so utilise these as much as you can. Though you might feel as though you are as emotionally intelligent as possible, there are likely to be areas of improvement. Emotionally intelligence involves being aware of how you can improve at all times.

Evaluate how you deal with stress in the workplace. As a modern manager, there are a lot of sources of stress, but it’s how you deal with them that’s important. Becoming upset when there is a delay or when something goes wrong is not showing emotional intelligence, nor is blaming others for a problem. Instead, stay calm and in control, even when things become difficult. Keeping your emotions under control during a crisis is a key part of being an emotionally intelligent manager.

As a manager, you are likely to upset someone at one point or another, and it’s likely that people won’t always agree with your way of doing things. When this happens, take responsibility. If you hurt someone’s feelings, apologise, and face the problem head on. Being emotionally intelligent means owning your mistakes, apologising and asking for forgiveness from others in your team.

As a modern manager, emotions in the workplace can appear at a moment’s notice, but it’s your ability to recognise them that is most important. It’s important that you, as a manager, know how to keep your emotions balanced and in check during your time at work. Otherwise, you run the risk of hindering your capabilities as a strong and respected leader. By investing time in bettering your ability to recognise different emotions, you stand a much better chance of staying emotionally balanced as a team leader.