Utilize Your Strengths
Emotional intelligence (or EQ, as it is frequently called), means understanding and managing your own emotions effectively and using that knowledge in day-to-day interactions with peers, coworkers, friends, family, and clients. That knowledge provides the key to success both in our personal lives and at work.
Exploring Emotional Competencies
Emotional competencies are those components that make up emotional intelligence. There are two categories of emotional competencies: personal and social.
Personal emotional competencies include self-awareness and self-assessment. People with emotional awareness know which emotions they are feeling and why. They understand the links between their feelings and what they think, do and say. Accurate self-assessment is key to knowing one's inner resources, abilities, and limits. People with these competencies are reflective an can learn from their experience. They are open to candid feedback, new perspectives, continuous learning, and self-development.
Social emotional competencies relate to how people perceive others and how people adapt to their environment. This specifically includes the ability to show empathy and a level of awareness of others' feelings, needs and concerns. Empathy is a key ingredient in achieving a high level of emotional intelligence. Empathy requires being able to read another's emotions; it entails sensing and responding to a person's unspoken concerns or feelings. It requires understanding the issues that lie behind another's feelings. The prerequisite for empathy is self-awareness. Empathy represents the foundation skill for all social competencies important for work.
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Today, organizations are concerned about emotional intelligence--and they have reason to be. Several studies show the importance of EQ to workplace success. In one study1, emotional competencies mattered twice as much as IQ and expertise. In another study2 , emotional competencies were positively linked with productivity. In other words, the more emotional intelligence people have and use, the more productive they are at work. Workplace competencies are learned habits. If we are deficient, we can learn to do better. The biggest problem is lack of self-awareness and the first step is to become aware of our own feelings and how we interact with others.
1. Daniel Goleman, “Working with Emotional Intelligence” 1998
2. The landmark study of the value of top workers: John E. Hunter, Frank. Schmidt, and Michael Judiesch, “Individual Differences in Output Variability as a function of Job Complexity,” Journal of Applied Psychology (1990)
2. The landmark study of the value of top workers: John E. Hunter, Frank. Schmidt, and Michael Judiesch, “Individual Differences in Output Variability as a function of Job Complexity,” Journal of Applied Psychology (1990)
Developing Your EQ Using DiSC®
The first step to developing your EQ is to be aware of your emotions, your behaviors, and how they affect others. Assessment tools like the DiSC Classic® help people develop their self-awareness and emotional intelligence by giving them the opportunity to better understand their emotions, thoughts and behavior in a particular environment. The DiSC Classic® provides confidential feedback to help people develop their strengths and expand their emotional intelligence.
What Are Your Strengths...and How Can You Optimize Them?
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