Emotional Intelligence

What Is Emotional Intelligence?  

Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions effectively and a way for leaders to foster a workplace that spurs greater innovation, creativity, collaboration and productivity.  For companies and organizations striving for a competitive advantage, emotional intelligence is increasingly taking on more significance.

It's the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. These skills enable us to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking, problem solving, and technical work. They also enable us to be aware of the emotions of others and to become aligned with them to accomplish complex tasks. High emotional intelligence empowers you to influence others to achieve superior levels of business impact.

Emotional intelligence is quantified as the Emotional Quotient (EQ), which is assessed by measurable test results agreed upon by leading psychologists. Much like the more familiar Intelligence Quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence and EQ are key predictors of a person's success in a given range of situations.

EQ skills are a unique repertoire of social and emotional skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain relationships, cope with challenges, and communicate in an effective and meaningful way. Essentially, EQ skills are the ones we use to navigate the everyday challenges of life. Research has demonstrated that an individual’s EQ is often a more accurate predictor of success than the individual’s IQ. No matter how intellectually intelligent someone is, their success is still governed by how well they communicate their ideas and interact with their peers.

In this context, it is not hard to understand why emotional intelligence matters in the workplace. Unless you work alone, you interact with your co-workers on a daily basis.

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Effective leaders (regardless of their position or title) must have high emotional intelligence to effectively motivate, inspire and earn the trust of their teams and to perceive any potential friction or issues before they become problematic. Emotional intelligence in the workplace is almost as important as "traditional" intelligence—and in many cases, it is more important for solving complex problems that require teamwork and the human element.

People with emotional intelligence can recognize emotions – both within themselves and others – and can work to reach the best solutions for everyone and the organization. Emotional intelligence is the key to individual workplace success, effective organizational decision-making, increased profitability, customer and employee retention, and strong organizational cultures. And here’s the really good news: unlike IQ (our cognitive intelligence), our emotional intelligence can be developed and increased.

How can a self-assessment suddenly change your personality habits?

How can a leadership workshop magically change the social skills you have been honing for decades? 

Of course, nothing happens “suddenly” or “magically.” However, the assessment will allow you to gain an understanding of your go-to emotional intelligence skills, as well as the skills you use less often. Through the workshop, you will get clear, empirically based and actionable strategies to help you focus your development efforts in a meaningful way. We will focus on the skills that lead to higher emotional intelligence in the areas that are important to your performance and satisfaction. That’s when change can happen!

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Just having a skill, however, isn’t enough. It’s important to practice and use our emotional intelligence at work to enhance performance.

Having high levels of Emotional Intelligence can give you a real advantage in today’s competitive working environment. EQ is all about your ability to recognize and understand your emotions and your skill at managing and dealing with other people’s emotional states. Put simply, it is the ability to problem solve with or without emotion.  

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There are numerous benefits to developing high levels of emotional intelligence and the good news is that anyone can increase their EQ with some good training. Participating in an EQ Assessment and Workshop will help you to elevate your levels of EQ so that you can achieve better results at work. Would you like:  

1)    Better professional relationships 

Understanding what makes other people tick, and developing positive and harmonious working relationships, is a large part of Emotional intelligence. Improving your EQ will enable you to interact and communicate with others more effectively and enhance your professional relationships.  

2)    Increased personal effectiveness 

EQ is increasingly being regarded as a major key in personal success and by some as being more important than IQ. Being able to manage yourself and others successfully is often a crucial factor in success.  

3)    Improved thinking and decision-making skills 

EQ can help you develop your problem solving and decision-making abilities. It can also help with developing your strategic thinking capability, your ability gain the information necessary to make the best decisions, and your capability to motivate and inspire your team.  

4)    Better stress management  

EQ gives you the tools to be flexible, tolerate (and manage!) stress and remain resilient, despite setbacks.  

5)    Improved leadership capability 

Leaders with high levels of emotional intelligence have an advantage over their less well-equipped counterparts. EQ can help you to develop empathy and understanding about other people and this is crucial to the ability to inspire, influence, motivate and persuade them in a management or leadership role.

Emotional intelligence matters in every facet of life, and simply understanding what it is can go a long way in helping you improve your own EQ. 

Once you start identifying the effects of emotional intelligence and planning out a few routines to consistently improve your "score" in daily situations, you'll be amazed how much more successful you are in daily interactions and large, high-stakes professional situations alike. You might even wind up a happier person, too.

Emotional Intelligence is relevant in all areas of work and life. Whether in management/business/finance, computers and technology, architecture and engineering, health care, sales and marketing, first responders and military, education and social services, trades and technical, ministry, or any other field, being exposed to a range of experiences and skills can help you greatly in your career. With our assessment, workshops, and development programs, you can grow in your specialized field while also hearing from the diverse experiences of others.

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The more emotional intelligence you and your people have, the more likely everyone will succeed. And, Brené Brown says in Dare to Lead, “Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings, or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior.” In other words, we can either invest a reasonable amount of time, energy and money in helping people manage their thoughts and feelings, or we can continue to do what we’ve been doing – investing WAY TOO MUCH time and money dealing with the aftermath of people’s bad behavior, emotional outbursts, poor decisions and lack of trust.