Broadly speaking, emotional intelligence, sometimes called EQ, is your capacity to understand, recognize, reason, and manage and emotions. This is a critical trait as far as interpersonal relationships and communication are concerned.
According to psychologists John D Mayer and Peter Salovey, emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to recognize and understand emotions within oneself and relate to others. This ability helps in making decisions, solving problems, and communicating with others.
Why emotional intelligence is important
Let us learn more about the topic under the following sub-heads-
1. Emotional intelligence importance
The importance of EQ can be ascertained in all spheres of life these days. People tend to behave more rationally if their EQ score is high. Its application can be better understood by seeing the following two sub-heads below.
2. Importance of emotional intelligence in business
For business leaders, having a higher score in EQ is crucial for success. These are the following components or elements of an individual’s emotional intelligence quotient that spells success for a business leader. These are as follows-
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Self-awareness
Self-awareness means being able to identify your strengths and weaknesses. A true leader will be able to understand where his strengths and weakness lie and leverage the same as per need and work on the weaknesses.
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Self-regulation
Leaders are usually able to regulate themselves and exercise control over their emotions. They tend not to be impulsive. Individuals that lack these positive traits tend to blame others, lose control and abuse others or verbally attack their team members and do not give importance to workplace ethics and values.
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Motivation
The best business leaders will strive hard to be consistent with their goals and pursue their dreams. They appear to be better motivated and formulate their activities accordingly. They set a high standard for themselves and adhere to the same.
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Empathy
It is important for leaders to be empathetic towards their team members, to try and understand them, and spend adequate time developing their skills to understand people.
3. Why EQ is important in the workplace
The importance of emotional intelligence cannot be undermined. As explained in the instances above, a higher EQ score will help you to form a better interpersonal relationship with your colleagues at the workplace.
Aside from the business leaders, the individual employees need to have a good EQ score. While business leaders can offer their best to employees with a good EQ score, it will be equally easy for the individual employees to reciprocate their emotions if they have an equally good EQ score.
In a nutshell, EQ measures how reasonable and sensible you are in your approach towards others and how you deal with others by relating to their emotions and sense of reasoning.
