Long gone is the era when you only needed technical skills to thrive at a workplace. As everything is becoming fast paced and work is not related only to the office (it has also reached our homes), it is important for us to learn skills to manage this shift. So, for the rescue in this situation, Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the workplace has a become a critical for professional success. Now the employers are focusing and recognizing the importance of emotional intelligence, which is the ability to manage your emotions and understand them.
It helps in keeping the workplace positive. It also helps in keeping your mindset positive. Mastering emotional intelligence in the workplace helps you to build strong relationships, deal with the challenges and development of positive work environment, which is suitable for growth of both – the company and the team members.
1. Practice Self-Regulation: When you learn the ability to manage and control your emotions, reactions and impulses, it is called self-regulation. There are certain practices such as mindfulness, positive self-talk and deep breathing which you can use to divert your thoughts and self regulate yourself. Whenever a challenging or high-pressure situation arises, learn to react with patience instead of reacting impulsively. Developing emotional intelligence by learning self regulation helps you in dissolving conflicts in a better way. It also helps you in staying calm, composed and makes you sound experienced.
2. Be aware of your emotions: When you develop the ability to understand and recognize your own emotions, it is called self awareness. Different people react differently on same situation. Before reacting, you should take time to reflect on your feelings. You should reflect at your thoughts that are going on in your head. Also, reflect upon your reaction that you are going to give. Sometimes re-thinking a same situation saves you from giving impulsive reactions. Identify the situations that trigger you, that put you in a certain pattern of behavior. After this, you need to develop emotional intelligence in the workplace so that these patterns are not repeated. When you focus on your strength, weaknesses and triggers, it helps you in becoming more self aware about yourself. Then, you are able to manage your emotions in a more effective and efficient way.
3. Work on Inter-Personal Skills: Interpersonal skills include effective and clear communication, goal oriented collaborations and relationship management between all the team members. If you want to improve your interpersonal skills, practice active listening. Then, adapt to a positive tone of communication. You can also learn about conflict resolution techniques so that you are able to solve the problems brought up by your colleagues, constructively and respectfully.
When someone is telling you the details of any project or the problems, listen to them carefully with interest and offer support. This will develop a sense of trust among them. Effective interpersonal skills are a great step towards mastering EI skills. You can develop and build a supportive network, deal with the dynamics of workplace and reach common goals using these skills.
4. Don’t Forget Empathy: When you understand the feelings of others, when you put yourself in their place and try to see their problems from their POV, it is called empathy. Practice empathy with your colleagues. Try to understand their perspective without judging them. One of the best EI Strategies for success at workplace is acknowledging and understanding the emotions of your team members. When you demonstrate empathy towards your team members, it helps in building a positive workplace environment and it also promotes peaceful work culture.
5. Say Hi to Changes: In today’s dynamics, where workplace is rapidly evolving, if you don’t adapt to changes, you will fall behind. Whenever there is a change in your expected results, whenever the to-do list does not go as per plan, you need not panic. Be ready to change yourself and adapt to changing circumstances. You need to develop a vision of optimism for this. Being flexible, being ready to adjust to the new circumstances and being open-minded helps you in developing emotional intelligence. When you are ready to adapt to changes, you prepare yourself to work in any professional environment.
6. Stress Management: How can we forget about stress when we are talking about workplace ! It is inevitable and it will be better for all of us to just simply learn to manage it. At home there are various practices which you can do to reduce or managers stress such as meditation yoga exercise and time management. But at workplace, you need something else. Emotional intelligence in the workplace will help you to manage your stress effectively. When you prioritize yourself, when you take care of yourself, when you set boundaries and when you ask for help whenever needed, you prevent burn-out and it helps in reducing stress to a great level. All this will result in good performance and eventually success at whatever you are doing.
7. Improve your Conflict-Resolving Game: Where there is a workplace, there is a conflict. Situations in which tasks are assigned and not completed as per the expectation, it is natural for the conflicts to arise. And whenever a conflict arises, the first thing that most of the people do – is start the blame-game. It leads to a negative environment and reduces productivity. If you are on your way to mastering EI skills, you need to deal with conflicts with a solution-oriented mindset. Listen carefully to your team members, practice effective communication and try to understand the root-cause of the situation, instead of getting hyper and reacting impulsively. When the conflict is resolved in a proper manner without blaming anyone, it leads to development of relationships with trust; eventually leading to a positive work environment.
8. Leadership with Emotional Intelligence: Gone are the days when leadership used to be just about technical expertise. If you want to be a successful leader in today’s era, follow one of the best EI strategies for success i.e. combine your leadership with emotional intelligence. When you combine emotional intelligence in your leadership, it means inclusion of authenticity, empathy, effective communication and integration towards your team members. With emotional intelligence, you can develop psychological trust between your team members. It also helps in motivating your team members through difficult times. It also helps you to thrive in the department of goal achievement.
Mastering emotional intelligence in the workplace is not a desirable skill anymore, it has become a need-of-the-hour. If you want to survive and thrive in your professional landscape, you need to take the help of EI. You can become a more effective leader and contributor to the success of the organization by developing self-regulation, improving interpersonal skills and gaining self-awareness about your own emotions as well as of the team members. Dive into the journey of a smooth growth, self-discovery and becoming a more better version of yourself by following the EI strategies for success mentioned above. Use your emotional intelligence towards your business and people to reach a level of fulfilment, greater success and satisfaction in your professional career. Â Good Luck !
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