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Tag: Emotions

  • How Much Emotional Intelligence Do You Have ? 11 Ways to Improve EQ

    How Much Emotional Intelligence Do You Have ? 11 Ways to Improve EQ

    Emotional intelligence is something that you can find only within yourself. Those who have higher emotional intelligence skills have more control over their emotions.

    They will never get stressed out when some crisis comes in front of them; they just calmly handle the situations.

    Suppose you know how to develop emotional intelligence. In that case, you will get more aware of your emotions, helping you connect with anyone because you can understand anyone on an emotional level.

    If you know how to improve emotional intelligence, you will have more control over your every emotion & you’re aware of your strengths & shortcomings. Having this quality can benefit from much success in any field, whether it’s professional or personal life.

    You will be seen as a positive, confident, optimistic, empathic person with whom everybody wants to be around.

    Now you have one question in your mind, and I don’t know how to improve my emotional intelligence.

    We haven’t been taught how to develop emotional intelligence skills in our life, but they can be learned by repetitive practice every day.

    But first, you need to know what emotional intelligence is? Before learning how to improve emotional intelligence within your life.

    So let’s what it is all about.

    WHAT’S IN IT

    What is Emotional Intelligence?

    Emotional Intelligence is also referred to as Emotional Quotient (EQ). It simply means a person is considered to be emotionally intelligent, those who know & aware of their own emotions & at the same time as the others as well.

    And by being emotionally intelligent, one can improve their control over their emotions & thoughts, which comes to mind.

    emotions are necessary for emotional intelligence.

    They can connect with others on an emotional level due to a deep understanding of emotions & feelings, which can help them make long relationships with others. 

    Knowing how to improve emotional intelligence skills helps us become more aware of ourselves, connect with others, more confident due to clarity about ourselves & helps us lead a happy life as well.

    Difference between EQ ( Emotional Intelligence ) & IQ (Intelligence Quotient)?

    As I have mentioned before, EQ is about having a better understanding of our emotions & ourselves better. If one knows how to improve emotional intelligence skills, then it helps us to connect with others & allows us to express our feelings easily due to clarity.

    On the other hand, Intelligence Quotient(IQ) is the term with which people are more familiar than EQ. It is the term that is constantly being referred to when someone is talking about intelligence.

    It can be measured through some tests or exams, which we are all familiar with.

    So now you get the basic idea of what Emotional Intelligence is? Now the question is how to develop emotional intelligence skills?

    Below I’ve compiled a list of ways from which anyone can self-taught themselves to become emotionally intelligent.

    11 Ways to Improve your Emotional Intelligence are-

    Observe within yourself:

    Start your journey of finding emotional intelligence by observing how you feel. We often tend to be so busy in our chaotic life, career obligations, family obligations & social media world that we don’t even focus our emotions. 

    Like-Why, we are feeling that emotion in that particular moment. To regain our touch with our feelings, you have to make time for yourself in peace. 

    Sit in a quiet place for about 5-10 min at the beginning days & just observe what kind of thoughts are floating around in your mind. Don’t try to hold back; let any emotions or feelings come & watch how you feel when that thought comes into your mind.

    Try to make time for yourself daily for at least 5 min. & do it.

    The more you do it, the better you understand your reaction against certain situations; you’ll be on the path to knowing how to develop emotional intelligence skills more deeply.

    Observe your reactions:

    When you sit down with your thoughts quietly, many incidents pass through your mind day-to-day; some past trauma, happy moments let it pass calmly.

    When thoughts keep coming, try to observe your behaviour towards specific incidents or opinions which may occur in your life like- Why have you snapped when your colleague says something about your life? Is the reason for your snapping because you don’t like to talk about your personal life? Or something else is bothering you at that time? 

    By analysing your behaviour in every event which happened in your life, you will get to know more about yourself & you’ll get more emotionally aware.

    And from the next time, you will be in more control over your emotions & behaviour towards others as well.

    Try to understand others emotions:

    The most significant sign of an emotionally intelligent being is that they understand others’ feelings & emotions; they are emotionally aware. While having a conversation with others, they also consider their feelings as well. 

    types of emotions

    So start trying to be more empathetic towards others’ emotions while you interact with them. You can do this by asking them their opinions about the topic you’re talking about, showing them that you care about them.

    Inspect your Opinions:

    In today’s world, very few of the population have their own opinions; most people follow herd opinions.

    Those who know how to improve emotional intelligence in their life always have their own original opinions. So try to inspect your thoughts about everything; why do you have that opinion? Is that your own belief, or it’s due to the herd mentality?

    You should inspect those opinions, which you think that idea can’t be wrong & question each & every thought you have in your life. And in the process, you’re getting more aware of yourself.

    Take full responsibility for your actions:

    Those who have awareness within themselves take full responsibility for their actions. They never run away from being responsible if they have committed mistakes; instead of running away, they immediately own it.

    So if you have dealt with some situations poorly, committed a mistake, then own it & accept that you did it & learn from your mistakes.

    Take full responsibility for your feelings:

    Those who are emotionally evolved take full responsibility for their every action, even for the emotions or feelings.

    However, you are feeling & reacting according to them; only you are accountable for it, no one else. When you start to take responsibility for every action of yours, your approach toward life will make me more optimistic.

    Be confident:

    The thing is with emotional intelligence is the more you practice, the more you get clarity. And when someone got clarity about who they are? They feel confident & they seem like a confident person.

    Start practising by expressing your need, want & feelings to other people with confidence, so they know your stand.

    confidence

    Learn from both positive & negative experiences:

    The emotionally intelligent person acknowledges both positive & negative emotions that they experience from different situations.

    When they experience a positive event in their life, they celebrate it & appreciate it. The positivity from this helps us to go through any adversities.

    At the same time, they acknowledge adverse events also. If appreciating good times in your life is essential, you also need to recognise bad events.

    Because it gives us the strength to be able to tackle the negative issues in the future.

    Journal every day:

    Try to write a journal in a diary about your daily experiences, emotions that you have felt. Putting your everyday experiences in a journal is a great way to develop awareness about your feelings & thoughts.

    In your journal, just write down your daily experiences in it like-why I react like that when that joke isn’t even on me? I should’ve helped my colleague with the work at that time.

    The more you write daily, the more you get associated with your thoughts. And you’ll get more grasp with your thoughts & feelings.

    Do meditation:

    When you’re feeling emotional, angry, stressed & you justify the reason behind that emotion is your work or anything present in the outside world.

    image of a woman doing meditation for emotional intelligence.

    Emotions all come from within & if you don’t pause & resolve one feeling at a time, it will become a stack of emotions.

    The best solution to resolve all the emotional mess is meditation. Sit down still with your thoughts & try to find the actual reason you’re feeling in a certain way.

    You won’t get the answer in just one try; you have to practice it daily & the more you do it daily, the more clarity you get in your thoughts.

    For beginners, 5mins is more than sufficient to do meditation.

    Practice:

    If your question is how to develop emotional intelligence fast? It’s simple. Practice! Developing Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is not a one time process; it’s a lifetime process. The more you practice it, the more you get better at it.

    Conclusion:

    As I’ve repeated in this blog, emotional intelligence gives you more awareness about your thoughts, feelings, emotions & you have more clarity about yourself. 

    And anyone can learn it like other skills, but it’s a lifetime process; you have to learn it till you live.

    “The more you’ll get to know about yourself, the less you will realise how less you know about yourself.”

    Also, you can read our blog on Helping your people developing Emotional intelligence

    FAQ’s

  • Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Leadership

    Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Leadership

    The concept of emotional intelligence is rooted in the work of Charles Darwin. Modern emotional intelligence was initially researched and explored by graduate student Wayne pains in 1985. Doctoral thesis is a study of emotion continuing this exploration and coining the phrase emotional intelligence or EI was salivating mayor in 1990.

     Since 1990 EI has been developed adapted and embraced by the business world and educational leaders. By the research of Daniel Goleman and others in its simplest form, emotional inteligence can be defined as being aware of and managing one’s own emotional reaction to situations.

    It also means to purposely understanding those feeling and reactions in order to react more effectively in any given situation. Furthermore, EI includes recognizing different types of emotions and others distinguishing the difference between one’s emotions and those of others.

    Using that information to guide one’s actions and thinking, understanding the emotional aspects of human interaction can help reduce misunderstanding in the workplace and help build more cohesive teams.

    WHAT’S IN IT

    Why is emotional intelligence important

    Although, Harvard Business Review, along with psychologist and Science journalist Daniel Goleman has discovered that the most influential leaders are alike. But, in one crucial way, they all have a high degree of EI Goleman asserts that there are four main dimensions of emotional intelligence-

    • Self-awareness
    • Self-management
    • Social awareness
    • Relationship management

    Self-Awareness

    It is the means of having a deep understanding of one’s emotions as well as one’s strength weakness needs and drives Goldman content that self-awareness is the basis of institution good decision making and one’s moral compass .

    image of a mirror depicting self awareness

    Self-management

    Although, It refers to effectively handling your distressing emotions. So, Leaders cannot effectively manage emotions in anyone else without handling their own emotions first.

    So, EI leaders can use the knowledge they have obtained about themselves to increase their self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, motivation, and adaptability.

    Social awareness

    It is also referred to as sympathy is knowing and understanding how others are feeling by reading verbal and nonverbal.

    But being able to communicate with them effectively. So, According to Pino’s twig and Olson the Social awareness dimension of EI state that a heightened state of awareness.

    And a leader’s communication ability is vital to understanding both the situation and the follower’s level of comprehension.

    Relationship management

    Although, Relationship management or the art of handling relationship centres around a leader being able to put that tired of self-awareness, self-management and empathy together in this final EI ability.

    So, Goldman contends that managing relationships skillfully boils down to moving people in the right direction. Hence, Through handling other people’s emotions effectively the art of persuasion conflict management and collaboration.

    What does the research say about emotional intelligence?

    Although, According to Goleman poets’ research, a person’s emotional intelligence is twice as important as IQ. Hence, Goldman studies emotional intelligence in the workplace.

    Although, Leaders in the top 10% of an organisation are extremely EI and show no discernible difference between them and their emotional intelligence skills and capabilities.

    emotional intelligence

    So, Goldman refers to this as being a complete person as people develop their skills and improve in their areas of need; they create a higher overall EI, which then, in turn, makes them a more effective leader. 

    A place for EI in the workplace

    Although, Emotional intelligence is an essential part of professional development. These skills have been strongly associated with both dynamic leadership and satisfying personal life experiences. In fact, many researchers have recognised EI as a significant predictor of success in the workplace.

    So, understanding emotional intelligence concerning building the most successful partnership with co-workers and clients may take many forms.

    Likewise, the benefits of actively engaging and a better understanding of it can lead to a more effective personal management system, more adaptable teams, better listening skills, development of leadership intellect and a decrease in interpersonal conflicts.

     Engaging emotional intelligence training and development can help individuals building solid professional relationships and leadership skills. This can help faster an individual’s leadership potential by understanding the complex relationship between emotions and action. Leaders can better understand their own emotional reactions as well as a better employee more successfully.

    How I use emotional intelligence in the workplace

    Although as an emotionally intelligent leader, I feel it is vital to understand and incorporate the four leading emotional intelligence competencies in the workplace to be an effective leader.

    But, through strategically building and using emotional intelligence, a leader can enhance their sense of self and Oneness within the organization. As an emotionally intelligent leader, I will have the drive to achieve results, the ability to take the initiative, the skills to cooperatively collaborate.

    The strength to lead teams through challenging times and the motivation to energised and inspire my peers consistently by successful utilising its competencies. So, I will be better prepared as a leader for handling the emotion values, and goals of the people I lead.

    It will generate healthy and effective communication flow throughout the organisation; furthermore as an organisation’s climate is the result of attitude, decision-making abilities, communication efforts and emotions of the leader.

    I will ensure that my leadership style, along with my strong sense of EI, will create a workplace the encourages and supports a happy and caring environment where people can thrive and develop both personally and professionally and more productive at generating a more significant positive impact on the organization’s vision and goals.

    Conclusion

    We should respect our intellectual as well as sentimental values. But, we can not merge those values with our work profile. A leader must be aware of his IQ and EQ. It is the duty of a leader to stay calm even in a panic situation and finally take unbiased decisions.

    Hence, Emotional intelligence means a person who has a great sense of communication and management skills. They have the ability to make proper plans and also execute them.

    Also, read our blog on Helping your people developing Emotional intelligence

    FAQ’s

  • Managing Team Emotions

    Managing Team Emotions

    Emotions are part of our life. We stay connected to people and work just because of our emotions.  And when it comes to the workplace and team then our work-spirit determines our attachments and emotions towards our team and work. Thus, managing team emotions are very important to us. 

    Emotions of the team can either make the task impressive or it can ruin the whole task. As emotions can be positive or negative, it’s essential to determine which emotions can make or ruin our work. Yes, it’s a challenging task, but not impossible.

    Let’s explore more about managing team emotions.

    WHAT’S IN IT 

    Introduction

    5-tips-reduce-manage-employees-emotions-pressure - Potential

    Emotions play a vital role in the workplace of an organization. It impacts the entire environment of the organization, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an employee emotion or team emotions. Emotions change the entire work of the employee and its team.

    We have seen when an employee is happy then he does his work with full efforts. He put his soul in completing that work. But when an employee is sad then he doesn’t even want to do his work, and if he does so then he completes it like a formality. The same happens with the team also. 

    When the team feels happy they work with better coordination without any stress and tension. But when they don’t feel good that time they don’t work well. You can see any coordination in them and their work will also not be completed well.

    It’s the reason why leaders and managers try to manage their team emotions. So that they can work well with better coordination and their work will not impact the workplace.

    Types of emotions

    Managing Team Emotions

    As we have discussed, emotions play a large role in the workplace and organization. And not all emotions means they are good. Emotions are personally related to the person or employee. Every person’s emotions are related to some events. Whether it’s a good or bad event. 

    Good emotion gives good impact and vice-versa. Emotions can be divided into two types:

    • Positive Emotions
    • Negative Emotions

    Positive Emotions: These are those emotions that give a positive impact on employees. Positive emotions help people and employees to give favourable and good outcomes for the employees. Such as job enrichment, achievement, good environment, better coordination etc.

    It also makes employees self-confident. Positive emotions make employees emotionally strong, intelligent, and positive mood. Emotionally positive employees tend to get more successful than other employees.

    Negative Emotions: These are those emotions that give a negative impact on the employees. Negative emotions do not give favourable outcomes to the employees. They are like stress, anger, sadness, guilt, hostility and fear give bad coordination and stressful environments at the workplace. 

    Such emotions affect the mood and attitude of the employees. It increases tension and lack of self-confidence in the employees. Emotionally negative employees have fewer chances of success than emotionally positive employees.

    Ways to handle team emotions

    List of Useful Adjectives to Describe Feelings and Emotions - ESLBuzz Learning English

    We all know it’s very difficult to overcome our emotions. A time comes in everyone’s life when we surround ourselves with negative emotions. We feel very upset and try to seek how we can get rid of our negative emotions. It becomes challenging to stay calm at that moment. 

    So, here are five ways through which employees and persons can keep themselves calm and can handle their negative emotions in tough times. They are:

    • Try to find what is going wrong
    • Give examples for encouraging
    • Check changing emotions
    • Spot early sign of emotional crises
    • Get help and take action

    Try to find what is going wrong: We can’t handle our emotions until we find the reason behind it. All we need to do is identify what is going wrong with you. When we find what’s going wrong with us. Then only we can get over it. So try to find the issue which is causing negative emotions in you.

    Examples

    Give examples for encouraging: Leader and other team members can also help the employee suffering from negative emotions. Leaders and other employees should encourage and support them for overcoming negative emotions.

    They can give their real-life examples for encouraging the suffering employee. This will give him motivation and will stimulate his mind to get over from negative emotions.

    Check changing emotions: Another thing that leaders and other employees, as well as the suffering employee, can do is they can check his changing emotions. When emotions change in person then it impacts the entire behaviour of the person. Hence, they can detect negative emotions before they cause severe problems for the employee. And they can diagnose it easily.

    Spot early sign of emotional crises: We can spot early signs of emotional crises easily. If we spot an early sign then we can help the person before it’s too late. Some of the early signs are stress, social distancing, Poor engagement with other members of the team, etc. By detecting these symptoms we can help employees get severe emotional crises.

    Get help and take action: One of the best ways that one can do to handle team emotions is if you face negative emotions and you can’t get over it, then get help and take action. It happens many times that an employee tries but they can’t control their negative emotions. At this moment, one needs to do is take action, go and get help from others and get rid of such emotions.

    6 Mental habits for the team to manage their emotions

    We know that managing team emotion is as difficult as it seems. Even people try to handle their emotions but they can’t control them. And the reason behind this is that such negative emotions surround them strongly and it becomes tough for them to get rid of it. In such conditions, it’s better to prevent problems instead of curing it.

    Managing Team Emotions

    For this, the team can adopt 6 mental habits to manage their team emotions. They are:

    • Put boundaries for people who make you angry
    • Always respond, don’t react
    • Stop trying being perfectionist
    • Stop regretting and feeling guilty
    • Don’t compare with others
    • Pause before replying

    Put boundaries for people who make you angry

    The best step to managing your emotions is to set boundaries for all those people who make you angry. Building this mental habit will help you to manage your emotions. It is said that the people who make you angry impact your emotions more than any other people. Therefore, start putting boundaries for the people who make you angry.

    Always respond, don’t react

    Another mental habit that a team can adopt is always responding to people instead of reacting to their actions. If we react to other people it will harm our thoughts and feelings, not theirs. Therefore, for handling your emotions it’s better to adopt a habit of responding instead of reacting.

    Stop trying being perfectionist

    Studies state that one of the major reasons behind emotional crises is trying to be a perfectionist. Nowadays, people try to make themselves perfectionist and when they fail in it, this causes emotional crises.

    Therefore, stop trying to be a perfectionist and accept the truth that no one is perfect. You can just improve yourself. So keep improving and stop seeking perfection in everything.

    Stop regretting and feeling guilty

    Another habit that a team can adopt is to stop regretting your past and stop feeling guilty for whatever you did in your past. The team needs to understand that whatever happened in the past cannot be changed. All you can do is learn from your past and keep improving yourself. So, stop regretting and feeling guilty and focus on your present and future.

    Don’t compare with others

    We have often seen people try to compare themselves with other people. They try to copy others and this results in losing self-confidence. The team needs to understand that all people have different qualities and abilities. So, stop comparing yourself with other people and appreciate yourself the way you are.

    Pause before replying

    The team should adopt the habit of taking a pause. To manage your emotions. All you need to do is before replying, just take a 6sec. Pause and think well. This will help teams escape from unwanted arguments. Therefore, always pause before replying and control your emotions in that pause.

    Conclusion

    On a whole, it’s clear that emotions play a very important part of everyone’s life. Whether it’s personal or workplace or either be a team. It not only impacts teamwork but also harms the workplace environment. It’s difficult to manage emotions, but it’s not impossible. Therefore, Everyone, need to take steps and control their emotions.

    There are several methods through which a team can handle their emotions. All they need is support and encouragement. It’s not only one’s duty to handle everyone’s emotions. Every person in a workplace needs a support team for handling their emotions. So, stop escaping and fight against your negative emotions.

    Also You can read our Blog on How to use Cause and Effect Analysis to Easily Solve any Problem

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