For the past decades, emotional intelligence has been a debatable and an essential topic in understanding the different domains in human life (Drigas & Papoutsi, 2018). Emotional intelligence is the capability of understanding, identifying, using, expressing and managing the emotions (Kotsou, Mikolajczak, Heeren, Grégoire & Leys, 2018). It has an essential role in both work and relationships among people as well as in their health status.
Aspects and Effects of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is found to be equal or more important than intelligence quotient that is the two are directly linked (Drigas & Papoutsi, 2018). Being aware of not only one self’s feelings but as well as those people around enables a person to manage his or her relationships and behaviors. The different dimensions of emotional intelligence are: a. the ability of a person to gather information from other’s thinking or simplifying notions with emotion, b. the ability of a person to identify emotions in music, pictures, faces and other media or perceiving emotion, c. the ability of a person in managing emotions for both interpersonal and personal development and lastly, d. the ability of a person in understanding emotional information (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso & Sitarenios, 2003). Lastly, motivation and social skills are also some of the well-studied dimension of emotional intelligence (Serrat, 2017).
Upon assessing my strengths and weaknesses, these dimensions of emotional intelligence have helped me understand myself more. Every day I get to receive several stimuli from the environment which affects me emotionally. I believe I am able to manage these stimuli through the application of what I’ve learned about emotional intelligence. I am able to assess the events or things whether they are worth thinking or worrying about. I can also say that I am less vulnerable to stressors and my strengths are even more prevailing.
Advantages of Being Emotionally Intelligent
To what I believe and see, my degree of emotional intelligence is quite high. Fortunately, as I am able to recognize the emotional stimuli, I become aware as well of the feelings of others even if they do not tell it straight-up such as through their voice intensity and body language, hence, I was able to respond correctly and positively. It is really a great skill since I avoid having unnecessary confrontations with the people around me. Also, being self-aware regarding my weakness, strengths, feelings and beliefs has helped me change my thoughts accordingly then my emotions and actions. Lastly, with high emotional intelligence, I am better in working with different people since I am able to be flexible and adjust with changes.
I believe, as of the moment, I don’t have something to change within myself but rather, I want to improve my social skills and self-motivation so that I could learn more.
Developing Self-Motivation and Social Skill
When talking about emotional intelligence, self-motivation means interests in maintenance of good score and that there is a strong aspiration in achieving goals (Goleman 2001 as cited in Issah, 2018). Self-motivation can be developed through training such as setting realistic goals, seeking feedback from others, being committed to the goals and understanding that there are obstacles along the way. On the other hand, social skill with regards to emotional intelligence means the ability to influence and manage other’s emotions successfully (Drigas & Papoutsi, 2018); this consist of teamwork, influence, communication, conflict management, leadership and change catalyst. Although, I am already able to adapt with working with different people, I want to improve it so that I can be more sensitive in negotiations and define the importance of emotional parameters.