Let me share a story with you. Someone close to me resigned from her job in less than a year. She was home for a long time and made many people wonder what had happened. One day, out of curiosity, I asked her why she had left her former job (not without noticing how lively and robust she now looked). She narrated her ordeal at work and how the manager constantly frustrated them. She wasn’t the only one that resigned.
There is a general belief that to make people respect you, you should be harsh, unbending, and detached. However, most people’s favorite boss is not the cold and emotionally detached one with the most technical aptitude. It is the manager that makes you feel appreciated and demonstrates the highest level of emotional intelligence. Why is this? Emotional Intelligence.
What is Business Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, assess, and control one’s own emotions, the emotions of others, and those of groups-Daniel Goleman’s seminal 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Be Better than IQ.”
Business Emotional Intelligence is a practical approach to emotional intelligence at work. It is the situation where individuals at work identify, assess, and control their emotions, others’ emotions, and their customers’/clients emotions for the growth of the business. It is using intrapersonal and interpersonal traits to handle critical work issues related to underlying behavioral patterns.
Working with and managing different employees at work can be stressful. You will need a certain level of emotional intelligence with everyone. Among other things, business emotional intelligence helps you work with the diversities in the workplace. It helps you respond to challenges, manage stress, understand your team, collect feedback, and collaborate successfully.
Below are 5 steps to help you grow and scale your business emotional intelligence.
1. Identify your own emotions
Daniel Goleman listed five key essentials of emotional intelligence, and on top of the list is self-awareness. Self-awareness means being able to master your emotions, how you react to situations, and your triggers. Understanding your weakness, mood, and emotions helps you understand others better and avoid situations that might make you overreact. Without self-awareness, you constantly struggle to work with or manage other people.
2. Self-regulations
Do you take the blame when things go wrong, or try as much as you can to transfer the blame to others?
Self-regulation means strong control over your emotions and accountability for your actions and inactions.
Also, since business involves working with people and customers with different perspectives on life, you are bound to meet people who are difficult to work with and tend to bring out the worst in you. Finding a way to manage these people is one of the ways to develop emotional intelligence.
3. Manage negativity
When faced with a challenging situation, emotional intelligence helps you to pay attention. If there is more than one person involved, this helps you to pay attention to both parties and make your decision without fear or favor.
4. Listen
Paying attention helps you understand what the other person is saying. Listening can make or mar communication. Also, research has shown that people who pay attention are good leaders and customer relations officers. Listening is an essential aspect of being emotionally intelligent.
5. Be attentive
Beyond being a good listener, be attentive to triggers. Most times, when people are pouring out their anger at you, it is out of a place of frustration or stress. Identifying the trigger guides you on how to address the issue.
Emotional intelligence is an important aspect of every business’s growth. Understanding your customers, paying attention to their agitation, and managing your triggers can help a business succeed.
If you are a business owner who has yet to join Kominiti, go to www.kominiti.com
Kominiti is simple, safe, and secure
