Why Is Emotional Intelligence So Important?

An interesting thing is happening in the 21st-century workplace: The more technology we have in this digital age, the more we automate tasks and trust machines to take over duties, the more we realize the importance of emotions.

Yes, emotions, and more specifically emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is our ability to acknowledge emotions in ourselves et al., to know their effect, and to use that knowledge to guide our thoughts and behaviors.

Because emotionally intelligent people tend to get along better with others and be more empathetic and compassionate, they are likely to be more successful compared to their counterparts. And that makes emotional intelligence something worth learning more about.

What is emotional intelligence or (EQ)?

Emotional intelligence (otherwise referred to as emotional quotient or EQ) is that the ability to know, use, and manages your own emotions in positive ways to alleviate stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at college and work, and achieve your career and private goals. It also can assist you to attach together with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.

Why is emotional intelligence so important?

As we know, it’s not the neatest people that are the foremost successful or the foremost fulfilled in life. You probably know people that are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships.

Intellectual ability or your IQ (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to realize success in life. Yes, your IQ can assist you get into college, but it’s your EQ which will assist you manage the strain and emotions when facing your final exams. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are best once they build off each other.

What are the Difference between IQ and EQ?

If emotional intelligence may be a sort of intelligence, how does it differ from the mental type? In part, by how it’s measured. One’s IQ (IQ) may be a score derived from standardized tests designed to live intelligence.

Your IQ relates on to your intellectual abilities, like how well you learn also as understand and apply information. People with higher IQs can think abstractly and make mental connections more easily.

Emotional intelligence is very different. Sometimes called EI (for Emotional Intelligence) or EQ (for Emotional Intelligence Quotient), emotional intelligence is like using emotions to think and enhance our reasoning.

Those with high emotional intelligence are ready to manage their emotions also as use their emotions to facilitate their thinking and understand the emotions of others.

When it comes to the workplace, some say emotional intelligence is more beneficial for your career than IQ, although others argue IQ matters more. Regardless of which is more important, emotional intelligence plays a decidedly important role at work.

Five Components of Emotional Intelligence

Self-regulation:

This is the power to regulate or re- direct disruptive emotional impulses and moods. It involves the ability to suspend judgment and delay action to allow time for thought. From a neuro-scientific perspective, you can frequently observe this skill, or lack of it, by watching response times.

If an angry client is in rapid-fire mode responding to what you say in but about half a second then it's very likely that they're not giving conscious thought to what's being said to them.

Those with this ability will frequently demonstrate trustworthiness, integrity, comfort, with ambiguity and openness to change.

Internal motivation:

Frequently seen within veterinary professionals, internal motivation is about working with and for an inner vision of what's important, a curiosity and desire for learning and development, a drive that goes beyond external rewards such as money or status.

There is often a strong drive to achieve, optimism even in the face of failure and organizational commitment. There also are risks, particularly within the presence of an undue sense of perfectionism.

Empathy:

This relates to the power to know the emotional make-up of others and therefore the skill to treat people consistent with their emotional reactions. It includes skills in building and maintaining relationships with those we inherit contact with on a day to day.

Though central to a service profession, empathy can tend to be somewhat less well developed in those with an isolated background and an intensive/competitive scientific training. Empathy often does, but doesn't necessarily, imply compassion; it are often used for both good and bad.

Social skills:

This involves the ability to manage relationships, build networks, find common ground and build rapport. It will often help when leading change, being persuasive, building expertise and getting great performance from teams.

Whilst complex and somewhat uncertain, Emotional Intelligence reflects a central set of competences within what it's to be a veterinary professional.

Education in this area remains basic within the profession but in the increasingly more challenging environment ahead it may make the difference between success and failure.

Emotional Intelligence Skills

A high IQ is additionally something we tend to change state with while emotional intelligence is some things we will work to enhance. To an outsized degree, our emotional intelligence starts in childhood with how we’re raised, but as adults, we will take steps to urge emotionally “smarter.”

Reflect on your emotions:

This is where self-awareness begins. To grow in emotional intelligence, believe your own emotions and the way you sometimes react to negative situations, whether or not they involve a co-worker, loved one or stranger. When you’re more conscious of your emotions and typical reactions, you'll start to regulate them.

Ask for perspective:

What we perceive to be reality is usually quite different from what those around us are seeing. Start getting input from others to understand how you come across in emotionally charged situations.

Observe:

Once you’ve increased your self-awareness and you understand how you’re coming across, pay more attention to your emotions.

Pause for a moment:

Stop and think before you act or speak. It’s hard to try to, but keep performing at it and it'll become a habit.

Become more empathetic by understanding the “why.” Try to understand the “why” behind another person’s feelings or emotions.

Choose to learn from criticism:

Who likes criticism? Possibly no one. But it’s inevitable. When we prefer to learn from criticism instead of simply defend our behaviors, we will grow in emotional intelligence.

Practice, practice, practice:

Becoming more emotionally intelligent won’t happen overnight, but it can happen with effort, patience, and a lot of practice.

Conclusion

We live in an age when we can earn a certification in any number of topics to boost our careers, thanks to technology, but sadly we can’t earn one in emotional intelligence.

That’s something we have to address as individuals, to recognize it as important, choose to improve it and continue to work on it—probably for the rest of our lives.

Written by – Umme Amara Shaikh