From the course: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?

From the course: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?

“

- In a working world that is fast paced, constantly changing, and increasingly complex, emotional intelligence is one of the key skills to master. Not only will you reap rewards personally by enhancing your performance and supporting your wellbeing, but by developing your emotional intelligence, you'll have the ability to build strong networks and foster meaningful relationships with others. Let's start at the very beginning. What exactly do we mean by emotional intelligence, or EQ as it's sometimes described? Emotional intelligence is your ability to be aware of your emotions and triggers and to manage your emotional responses in a way that's positive for you. There's also a social element to emotional intelligence, which is about building your social awareness to understand what's going on around you and how others may react, and then using that information to build strong relationships with others. Unlike general intelligence or personality traits, your levels of emotional intelligence can change over time, which provides you with an opportunity to develop your emotional intelligence to achieve results you want to see in your working life. If you want to improve your understanding of your emotional responses and maybe reduce stress or anxiety, work on developing your emotional intelligence. If you'd like to better manage how you respond to challenges, change, or complexity to achieve better results, emotional intelligence can help. If you are looking for a promotion and you want to build strong relationships with key stakeholders, you guessed it, work on your emotional intelligence. There are four quadrants of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. You might notice the first half of emotional intelligence is inward facing. It's about understanding your emotional reactions and responses. I always recommend building self-awareness first. The second half is outward facing, so understanding more about others and your environment and managing relationships. What you'll learn from this process will help you to develop the skills you need to get even better at understanding others, and ultimately connecting with people in a meaningful way. The great news is emotional intelligence is a skill. It's not an innate talent. This means you can learn how to take control of how you express your emotions and how to interact with others. It's just a case of learning and practicing the skills. Join me in the next video to get started.

Contents