Emotionally Intelligent Behaviour
Employers used to focus on intellectual competencies, qualifications, work specific experience and technical knowledge. With the developing need for coaching, mentoring, multi level leadership and communication skills there has been a shift to employing and developing “Personal Intelligence” – the ability to relate to the self and other people.
As we want and demand more from life it becomes crucial to reprioritize our skills. A key area of success is pursuing the knowledge and understanding of ourselves and others.
Part of Personal Intelligence is ’Emotional Intelligence’ – a key element in management and leadership, understanding one’s self and the people you manage in terms of motivation, behaviour and performance potential. Emotional Intelligence assists with:
- Understanding yourself and motivations
- Adaptability to change
- Intrapersonal and interpersonal skills
- Stress management
- Empowering yourself and reaching fuller potential
- Improving social relationships
- Problem solving
- Greater wellbeing and happiness
It is said that IQ gets you through school but EQ gets your through life.
To be successful we have to ACT with emotional intelligence. ACT stands for: Awareness; Choices; and Treating Others – the basic guidelines in recognising, understanding and managing emotions in ourselves and others. Some of the ways to ACT with emotional intelligence are:
Awareness – develop positive attitudes in thinking and language and be aware of your attitude and the effect it has on yourself and others.
Understand yourself – your strengths and weaknesses, your self esteem, confidence and assertiveness issues in order to command results.
Analyse your beliefs and values – see if they still serve you and understand the importance of personal values in managing others.
Manage stress – know the impact of stress, what stresses you out and what helps. Make choices – choose what to think, say and do – take control.
Don’t blame others – take responsibility for your own life.
Make changes – develop positive habits to improve your work/life balance. Be able to say no to what you don’t want.
Treating others – develop sensitivity, rapport and practice positive conversations. Give effective feedback for better performance.
Recognise – the importance of your body language.
Listen to people – A LOT! Developing listening skills will build and maintain trust.
Improve conflict management skills – face up to and work with conflict. Set your boundaries – and keep your promises.
“Life is based on growth and finding new challenges to overcome, new contributions to make to society and constantly coming to a better understanding of yourself and the universe in which you live” Dennis Waitley