How Emotional Intelligence helps you to be successful in life?

Probably you are as intrigued by this question, as most people are as well! 

Research suggests that Emotional Intelligence plays a key role in making you successful, probably more than your inborn General Intelligence.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

As per Wikipedia

Emotional intelligence has been defined, by Peter Salovey and John Mayer, as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.

To find out more details please click here

Emotional intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80 percent of the “success” in our lives – J. Freedman

Emotional Intelligence is the skill to perceive and manage your emotions and the emotions of other people. It helps you to make correct decisions and take appropriate action.

What constitutes Emotional Intelligence?

As per Daniel Goleman and Richard E. Boyatzis, Emotional Intelligence comprises four domains:

• Self-awareness – understanding your emotions effectively and how they affect your thoughts and actions. A high degree of Emotional Intelligence will enable you to know your strengths and weaknesses. Plus, it enables you to understand your feelings and how these influence your actions

• Self-management – keeping control of your emotions will enable you to make decisions and act after giving proper thought. It will help you to take the correct action

• Social awareness – keeping focus on understanding others’ emotions and their needs in mind in social interactions. It will enable you to understand the emotional state of the other people in your interactions. And it helps you to tailor your behaviour towards them

• Relationship management – helps you manage your communications and relationship with others. This will help you in effective communication, resolving conflict, and build rapport

Additionally, they have identified twelve competencies in each of these domains. To find out more details please click here

EQ versus IQ

Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) is a measure of Emotional Intelligence. And it indicates your ability to perceive and manage your emotions.Besides, it also includes skills that help you to understand the emotional state of other people. It is a skill that you can learn and improve.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a measure of your General Intelligence. It indicates your ability to learn and apply knowledge, logical reasoning, and abstract thinking. It is inborn within you.

This article gives an in-depth analysis of the differences between EQ and IQ.

To be successful, you require a combination of high IQ and EQ levels.

IQ determines your inborn and native competencies.

EQ on the ther hand, determines your acquired competencies to manage your emotions. This enables you to handle the ups and downs in life better.

If you have a high IQ, it does not mean you possess a high EQ and vice versa.

How Emotional Intelligence helps you to be successful in life?

You have built a good understanding of what Emotional Intelligence is, let us now see how Emotional Intelligence helps you to be successful in life.

Enable Better Self-Control

If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far -Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence enables you to have a good awareness of yourself. You will have a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. You will understand your emotions better and understand your reactions based on these. And you will be able to control your emotions and act accordingly.

It enables you to keep calm even in difficult situations, take correct decisions, and act appropriately. You will not get carried away by your emotions which will cloud your judgement.

It helps you to maintain a problem-solving attitude and keeps you motivated to fight the challenges you face.You will not give up easily and wil try hard to overcome the obstacles on the way. And you will make efforts to be on the success path as per your unique definition of success.

In addition, it also helps you to maintain a rapport with the people you interact with regularly. You will be able to have compassion for other people, respect their views, and communicate better with them.

Manage Stress

When our emotional health is in a bad state, so is our level of self-esteem. We have to slow down and deal with what is troubling us, so that we can enjoy the simple joy of being happy and at peace with ourselves -Jess C. Scott

You will agree that life is not a bed of roses, and you would have your share of ups and downs in life. All these moments evoke strong emotions in you. The good moments bring happiness, and positive emotions are easier to handle. But, the unhappy moments evoke negative emotions and bring stress in your life.

I agree that some of the stress is caused by life events over which you do not have control . However you will agree that most of the stress is caused by things within your control.

The things you can control are setting achievable goals/targets, commiting to realistic timelines, agreeing to work which you can deliver, etc. These things are the main sources of stress in you life.

When you are under stress, your emotional health is in a poor shape, and under negative emotions. These negative emotions can cloud your judgement and force you to act on impulse rather than on rational thought.

Having high emotional intelligence will help you have a good awareness of your emotions and manage your emotions better. This will enable you to have a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. It will also enable you to make correct decisions and manage the stressful moments better.

If you can manage the stress, it will make you happy and be at peace with yourself. And will keep you on the success path as per your definition of success in life.

Manage Conflict

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion. -Dale Carnegie

You face conflict in your interaction with another person, when you disagree with his / her views.

This worsens further, when you are not ready to understand his/her point of view and react emotionally. 

This strong adherence to your own opinion, and ignoring the other person leads to conflict. If you let your emotions control your reaction to conflict, then it is difficult to diffuse the conflict.

If you empathize with the other person and make a sincere effort to listen, you can reduce/avoid the conflict. That does not mean you drop your point of view. Listening patiently to him/her will make the other person feel good and most likely, you will get a similar reaction. It will enable you to bring forth your point of view.

If you understand each other it wiil help you come to an amicable solution.

High Emotional Intelligence will enable you to be in control of your emotions. Additionally, it will enable you to perceive the emotional state of the other person. This helps you to tailor your reaction as per the situation and manage the conflict.

Respond to Change

We all have heard the saying – Change is the only constant. It means that change is inevitable as time progresses. I am sure you realize this if you compare your life a decade back with the life you have today.

Emotional Intelligence helps you be ready for all these changes as they happen. It will help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses and how to align yourself to the change.

This change could be on the professional or personal front. Your Emotional Intelligence would help you understand this change and how to respond to it. It will help you to come to the realization that this change is inevitable. And for your survival, you have to adapt yourself. You will persevere and find ways to respond to this change and move forward on the success path.

Handle Negative Feedback

Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business – Norman Vincent Peale

These days, with an open internet and high social media interaction, anybody can comment or pass judgment on anyone. And inappropriate comments evoke strong emotions within you.

Some of this feedback may be irrelevant and reacting with strong emotion can side-track you from the success path.

It is also true that sometimes you do receive relevant feedback as well, but strong emotions can hide this from your view.

Being self-aware and controlling your emotions will help you analyze the feedback and see if it is relevant. It will enable you to filter out the genuine and relevant information from the clutter. Choose the relevant ones and move forward on the path to success you have defined yourself.

To find out more about how feedback can help you to be successful, please click here.

Enhance Teamwork

Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy. -Dean Koontz

In our professional life, most of the work we do is in a team setting. The engagement could be for a project where the team works to achieve a common goal within a fixed timeline. Or the team could be doing a specific function in an organization.

Besides this, there are also many social engagements where we require teamwork to achieve a common goal.

For a team to work together cohesively, the team must understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They must support each other, communicate well, and tackle all the problems together.

For this to happen, if the team members are high on Emotional Intelligence, they can work in harmony. They will take care of each other, listen to each other, and reduce conflicts that come in their interactions. In addition, they will prioritize team goals over individual goals. They will share responsibilities and credit between all the team members.

It is an ideal work environment where you work in harmony to achieve a team objective. This team will be high on energy and can overcome any challenges that come on the way.

Enhance Leadership skills

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. -Jack Welch

A good and effective leader is one who can make his team successful. He must ensure he communicates well with the team, understands them, and motivates them to give their best.

In addition , he must show them the path to success and becomes their guide. He must trust them and believe that with proper guidance, the team can deliver the desired results.

On this path, he may have to make tough decisions sometimes in response to business, political or environmental changes.

A high degree of Emotional Intelligence is required to do all this. This will enable him to understand the capabilities of the team. He will set the tone and help the team to pick up and deliver the desired results. He can communicate better with the team and keep them motivated.

Summary

Emotional Intelligence is a skill that enables you to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of other people. These days it is relevant and complements your General Intelligence to make you successful in life. It is a skill that you can develop and improve.

7 major ways Emotional Intelligence helps you to be successful in life are

1. Enable Better Self-Control
2. Manage Stress
3. Manage Conflict
4. Respond to Change
5. Handle Negative feedback
6. Enhance Teamwork
7. Enhance Leadership skills

Now you understand the importance of Emotional Intelligence in getting success. Additionally, now you are also aware of the 7 ways How Emotional Intelligence helps you to be successful in life.

Go ahead and use your Emotional Intelligence to succeed in life!

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