Emotional intelligence – otherwise known as EQ – has quickly become one of the most critical skills one can possess. Having a high emotional quotient (EQ) affects every aspect of your organization. It impacts how you interact with others, both inside and outside your company or higher education institute. Beyond this, your emotional intelligence can have a large impact if you are responsible for organizational change management.
In an effort to achieve your goals and realize your potential, it is crucial that you understand critical aspects of emotional intelligence, as well as understand how to apply them within your organization.
The Five Factors of Emotional Intelligence
- Self Awareness
- Self Regulation
- Motivation (known as “a passion for work that goes beyond money and status”)
- Empathy for Others
- Social Skills, such as managing relationships building networks
Daniel Goleman, an American Psychologist, breaks emotional intelligence down into these five categories. In addition to his work, Andrea Ovans’ 2015 Harvard Business Review Article, “How Emotional Intelligence Became a Key Leadership Skill”, looks at these five categories in how they relate to being a leader. She addresses cultural intelligence, as well as the connection between empathetic leaders and financial performance.
Let’s Break Down the Five Factors of EQ
Self-Awareness:
Individuals often think of self-awareness as a few physical and emotional practices to regulate mood, body language, and tone. However, self-awareness extends to understanding how all of these factors are impacting others around you. In addition to understanding how to regulate yourself, take a few minutes every day to evaluate who you are working with, as well as the approach you need to take to manage your emotions in the settings you step foot in throughout the day. It can be easy to lose sight of this important practice, as a result of the hustle of work, meetings, and to-do lists.
Self-Regulation:
Self-regulation and self-awareness are a tag team. The actions you take to improve your emotional state are the key components to self-regulation. In order to improve your performance and the overall cohesiveness of your team, practice taking these actions daily. A tangible way to regulate yourself with your awareness is through the concept of ‘thinking before you speak’. It is one thing to be aware of how you may be affecting others, but it is a whole different battle to be able to act on that on awareness. In practice, pay attention to physical and verbal cues like body language, tone, and eye contact. These small adjustments from your team members can serve as hints to adjust your communication style.
As we continue to work with team members and other organizations who operate remotely, these cues remain the same; however, they can be more difficult to spot. Depending on the angle and nature of the virtual call, it may be difficult to read body language, tone, and eye contact. However, these cues are still present in the conversation and serve as your best hints to adjusting your communication style.
Motivation:
According to Daniel Goleman, motivation is “a passion for work that goes beyond money or status,” (Ovans 2015). This passion is important in terms of improving your position in the working world both short and long term. In an effort to maintain this passion, keep your goals (90-day, 12-month, 5-year, etc.) in mind. This will only serve to improve your position inside and outside the office. As you lead within your organization, don’t be afraid to share your passion behind these goals with others in your team. A shared level of awareness and drive will help realize personal and organizational performance metrics.
Empathy:
Empathy is the ability to identify with another person’s emotional state at a given moment and then react accordingly. However, this is easier said than done. The connection between emotional intelligence and empathy benefits both you and others simultaneously, with the right intentions behind it. For example, barriers in terms of authority, resource availability, and other factors can affect overall mood and willingness to perform. However, the ability to identify and name these barriers can benefit both parties involved. This concept extends beyond your immediate team. Empathy is also strongly correlated with how your organization understands customer service.
Social Skills:
Social skills can make or break your organization’s performance. In service-oriented organizations, beneficial social skills look like engaging on LinkedIn, networking with your community, and stepping outside of your comfort zone. Beyond extending your network, the people you surround yourself with will impact your everyday life. This impact stretches beyond your physical workspace or your organizational team. In a largely virtual and remote world, you also surround yourself with individuals online. The individuals who you follow, interact with, and build connections with will impact what you see on your feed. This, in turn, affects your everyday life.
So Now What?
This was a brief overview of emotional intelligence, as well as the five factors. However, there is so much more to understand and learn! If you are interested in continuing to explore this topic, we encourage you to dive deeper into the work of Daniel Goleman and others to learn more about your EQ.
Our Top Tips to Honing Your Emotional Intelligence Toolkit:
- Pay attention to those communication cues we discussed earlier and then adjust accordingly
- Consider how you are delivering your message, as well as what you are saying
- Aim to understand others’ motivations and goals through asking good questions
- Work to empathize with others and offer help if they want it
- Network with others and recognize that every person you meet may benefit you in ways you couldn’t imagine (or vice versa!)
- Use tangible tools and assessments to understand others’ perspectives even better. Check out TSI’s free and short Change Readiness Assessment to get started!
Emotional intelligence is a key player in not only our work lives, but our personal lives as well. Through these five factors, your organization has the opportunity to thrive. If you are wanting more guidance on what this could look like for your team, let us know!