Emotional intelligence at work helps you to manage relationships and build networks successfully. Discover more benefits of this soft skill here!
You’re at work and there’s so much to be done. Then, suddenly, someone makes a mistake, and you have to put everything aside to deal with an emergency that puts your company’s reputation at risk. What steps do you take? How do you best manage your emotions and those of your team? The answers to these questions don’t depend so much on your intelligence quotient (IQ), but on your emotional intelligence (EQ). And, at work, this soft skill is very (very) important when it comes to motivating, building a team, managing high-stress situations and, of course, creating a culture of leadership.
Okay, but what is exactly “Emotional Intelligence” and which are its main benefits?
Firstly, emotional intelligence will allow you to stop and think before acting impulsively. This point is essential to manage stress at work successfully. Returning to the example of an emergency in your company, a person who has worked and trained their EQ will know how to control their emotions to focus on prioritizing tasks, delegating them and motivating all those involved, despite the negative circumstances.
This serenity will allow you to be visionary (clear minded) but also reactive when the occasion calls for it. A good combination of proactivity and reactivity is essential, especially when it comes to improving job performance.
Also, emotional intelligence increases your communication skills. It will help you find the right words to express your needs and emotions openly, at the right time, and without hurting someone’s feelings, blaming or victimizing anyone.
It will also help you to know your strengths and weaknesses, this will be a great asset when setting boundaries at work and to respect those of others.
Thanks to EQ, you will work with empathy and compassion towards others. This happens because you become more conscious about the needs of others and so, you know how to manage their emotions.
For all this, you will gain the respect and trust necessary to influence the rest of your team. That is why emotional intelligence is a great driver of leadership.
Luckily, in this day and age more and more recruiters within the labour market consider emotional intelligence a priority soft skill, even above the intelligence quotient. A leader who doesn’t work on their emotional intelligence is making a serious mistake, because they will be leaving aside the most important thing in the workplace: people.
If you want to know more about the benefits of emotional intelligence and leadership at work, you can learn everything from within the Adecco Group as the world’s leading HR solutions partner. The ‘CEO for One Month’ 2019 program is already here and the registration period is still open in some countries. Quick! You only have until the 16th of April. Register here now and give your professional career the opportunity it deserves. We are really looking forward to meeting you and your values!