Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity to identify and understand emotions in oneself and other people (Kapur, 2018). This capacity also entails using this emotional management to communicate with others, solve problems, and make decisions. In addition, emotional intelligence refers to the capacity of a person to recognize his or her feelings, derive understanding from them, and realize how feelings impact the people close to him or her. It also includes having an insight into how other people feel, which is essential in managing relationships more effectively. Employees use emotional intelligence to guide behavior and thinking and regulate their emotions to become accustomed to environments or accomplish their goals (Kapur, 2018). Besides, emotional intelligence can be utilized in defusing conflicts, overcoming challenges, empathizing with others, communicating effectively, and relieving stress.
Characteristics/Elements of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness refers to the capacity of an individual to recognize and understand his or her emotions. It involves people understanding themselves, their values, drivers, strengths, and weaknesses, and how they affect others. Emotionally intelligent individuals recognize their emotions without letting their feelings to control them. They also assess their weaknesses and strengths and improve on areas they desire to perform better (Kapur, 2018). At the workplace, self-awareness includes self-confidence. For instance, an employee may be aware that tight deadlines bring the worst out of him and would, therefore, manage his time appropriately to complete the task before the deadline. I think workplaces prefer employees who can understand their emotions because they don’t allow their feelings to rule them as they interact with other employees and stakeholders.
Self-management
Self-management refers to the capacity to regulate and redirect mood and impulses. Individuals do not let their emotions to cripple them; instead, they use positive emotions and align their emotions with passions. Besides, self-management involves controlling behavior and emotions and adjusting to changing circumstances (Kapur, 2018). Employees who self-regulate do not allow anger to control them and also don’t make careless and impulsive decisions due to the emotion. Self-management requires people to think before they act. Characteristics of self-management include the capacity to say no, integrity, comfort with change, and thoughtfulness. An example of a case where self-regulation is essential in the workplace is when a team leader avoids blaming his colleagues for messing up a presentation; instead, the leader may consider the causes of the failure. He also informs the team members of possible solutions. I believe self-management is an essential trait that all employees should have because they need to make proper decisions in every task they engage in the workplace. Therefore, such decisions should not be influenced by emotions.
Motivation
Motivation is enjoying achievement for its own sake. Individuals with high emotional intelligence tend to be highly motivated. Emotionally intelligent and motivated employees have a passion for their work and have energy and optimism to perform better (Kapur, 2018). Motivated employees express willingness to defer instant results for long-term achievement. Besides, motivated employees are very effective in everything they do, love new challenges, and are highly productive. I think the reason organizations hire highly motivated employees is that many perform their tasks diligently without the need to be monitored or followed up.
Empathy
Empathy refers to the ability to understand other individuals’ emotional make-up. Emotional intelligent people consider other individuals’ emotions, especially during decision making (Kiruba & Priya, 2020). Empathy is also the capacity of an individual to recognize and understand the viewpoints, needs, and wants of the people around them. Individuals with empathy can recognize others’ emotions even when those emotions may not be obvious. Consequently, empathetic individuals are excellent at associating with others, listening, and sustaining relationships. At the workplace, empathetic employees avoid judging and stereotyping too fast. I think empathy is an essential component of emotional intelligence because employees that can understand other people’s emotions can establish healthy relationships with them, especially in workplaces that value diversity.
Social Skills
Social skills entail establishing a relationship with other people to guide them in desired directions. Employees with strong social skills tend to be team players (Kiruba & Priya, 2020). They don’t concentrate on their achievement first; instead, they assist others in developing and succeeding. Besides, individuals with social skills tend to be good communicators, resolve conflicts, and are masters in sustaining relationships.
Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Emotional intelligence is essential to employees in the workplace. For instance, emotional intelligence improves job satisfaction among employees (Arora, 2017). Besides, employees who are managed by leaders with high emotional intelligence experience higher job satisfaction. Emotional intelligence contributes to greater happiness among employees. Also, emotional intelligence improves job performance. This is because individuals with high intelligence are better at motivating themselves, which in turn decreases their likelihood of procrastinating and increases their focus on accomplishing long-term objectives. Emotional intelligence also improves job performance since managers with higher emotional intelligence assist teams in cooperating effectively and identifying factors that motivate the workers (Arora, 2017). Employees who work to develop norms for regulation and emotional awareness at all levels of interaction are able to build an established group efficacy, group identity, and a foundation of trust, which are essential for high performance.
Emotional intelligence promotes relationship management in workplaces. Empathetic employees can evaluate intuition and situations about human interaction to build successful teams. Besides, leaders in an organization use emotional intelligence to provide encouragement, which is essential in cultivating strong relationships with intentionality and consistency (Arora, 2017). Therefore, these leaders in the workplace can maintain healthy business relationships with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders linked to the organization.
Furthermore, emotional intelligence is essential in the resolution of conflicts. Emotionally intelligent workers can prevent and resolve conflicts because they tend to empathize with other individuals’ points of view (Arora, 2017). Besides, employees with higher emotional intelligence understand their emotions and express their feelings more positively. They also understand how to relate well with colleagues and maintain healthy working relationships, which are essential in preventing conflicts.
Moreover, emotional intelligence is important in the workplace because it facilitates the provision of effective communication. Self-regulation enables employees to recognize their strengths, biases, and emotions, which enable them to maintain control during communication with colleagues. Also, it promotes effective listening among employees, which is essential in communication. Employees feel comfortable to share their viewpoints and concerns with leaders that have high emotional intelligence. In addition, self-management is essential in the workplace as it enables staff members to accept both positive and negative feedback (Arora, 2017). Also, organizational leaders who can manage their emotions can predict employees’ reactions to negative news and prepare themselves for such responses. Also, emotionally intelligent employees allow colleagues to share their opinions during meetings without judging or interrupting them.
Emotional intelligence also improves problem-solving in workplaces. Managers, leaders, and staff members who have high emotional intelligence tend to make better decisions. Employees and managers who self-regulate avoid making hasty and impulsive decisions out of anger or other negative emotions. In addition, emotional intelligence enables workers to manage difficult situations. For instance, emotionally intelligent employees can remain calm and solve problems under pressure (Kiruba & Priya, 2020). Emotional intelligence is essential in identifying potential likely mental health risks to employees. Also, evidence has shown that workplaces with high emotional intelligence tend to promote creativity among employees. Emotional intelligent leaders recognize the importance of giving their staff freedom to practice creativity, which assists in improving productivity.
Currently, organizations experience changes that may tend to affect employees. However, employees who have high emotional intelligence can easily adapt to changes. Besides, emotionally intelligent employees have self-efficacy, which improves their capacity to cope with their job demands (Kiruba & Priya, 2020). On the other hand, workplaces that low emotional intelligence have a tendency to resist change. Employees in such workplaces may even sabotage initiatives required to facilitate change (Kiruba & Priya, 2020). Moreover, poorly thought-out plans show that the leadership team in the workplace has low emotional intelligence and fail to recognize how their recommended changes will impact their staff.
I believe that employers currently hire employees who have high emotional intelligence because they seek to ensure better performance. I think this is because changes occur, leading to increased competition for organizations; therefore, employers hire emotionally intelligent employees who can easily adapt to change and motivate themselves to accomplish set goals. Also, workplace conflicts are inevitable, and therefore employers prefer individuals can manage their emotions and those of others to prevent or manage disputes.
Disadvantages of using Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Generally, emotional intelligence is essential in workplaces. However, certain limitations arise when workplaces have extremely high emotional intelligence. This shows that there is an upper limit to emotional intelligence the same way there is a limit for other skills. Extremely high emotional intelligence in the workplace encourages unethical behavior and manipulation in workplaces (Sallie-Dosunmu, 2016). If unprincipled and deceitful workers have incredibly high emotional intelligence, they may use it to take advantage, deceive, and manipulate their colleagues, subordinates, and the leadership team. However, I believe that organizations adopt measures to avoid manipulation or unethical behavior.
Using Emotional Intelligence in Human Resources
In today’s workplaces, where company leaders value collaboration, recruiting employees who can recognize and manage their emotions, while also focusing on better performance is of utmost importance. Current employers consider emotional intelligence, which they perceive to be more important than technical skills and IQ. Emotional intelligence increases performance significantly compared to having more technical skills and high IQ (Sallie-Dosunmu, 2016). Emotional intelligence can be utilized when hiring new employees. The human resource team can use emotional intelligence to select the best candidates for job positions in the workplace. Evaluating candidates for their state of emotional development assist organizations in maximize future development investments. During hiring, the human resource team can use emotional intelligence interview questions, which are essential in reducing the pool of candidates, especially in situations where numerous applicants have impressive credentials (Sallie-Dosunmu, 2016). Organizations can determine the emotional intelligence of candidates by getting their references. The human resource team uses letters of reference to gauge candidates’ emotional intelligence because they are static and carefully prepared. Such references reveal the candidates’ competencies and how they treat other people.
Additionally, behavioral event interviewing is a useful technique that human resource teams use to select the best candidates based on their emotional intelligence. This method gives the human resource team an insight into the applicants’ awareness of their emotions, thought processes, and how they feel and think about others (Badri-Harun et al., 2016). Besides, behavioral event interviewing allows the human resource team to assess how the candidates handle conflicts, challenges, and disagreements with other people.
Moreover, employers can include in job descriptions the traits they applying candidates should have. For instance, employees should specify that they are looking for candidates with the following traits that show an individual has high emotional intelligence: team player, work to deadlines, problem solver, great communicator, focused, and ego-free (Badri-Harun et al., 2016). Recent studies have established that emotional intelligence contributes two-thirds of performance, unlike IQ and technical skills, which only contribute to one-third of top performance. Therefore, I think workplaces that hire employees with high emotional intelligence have access to high-quality employees. Also, employers emphasize emotional intelligence because individuals with technical abilities and high IQ only cannot lead the organization to the desired change. I also think that using emotional intelligence as criteria for hiring is essential in selecting the best candidates out a group of applicants who all have high qualifications.
Application of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Management
Leadership in workplaces is essential as it provides directions to employees to achieve established goals. Emotional intelligence has more impact and proves to be effective when applied to management and leadership in workplaces. Higher emotional intelligence in leadership enhances efficiency and positivity in workplaces (Badri-Harun et al., 2016). Currently, organizations reserve leadership and management positions for individuals with high emotional intelligence. Such leaders communicate the organization’s mission and objectives more effectively. In addition, emotionally intelligent leaders enhance their inspirational speaking abilities and persuasion, which are helpful when motivating employees. Besides, higher emotional intelligence in workplaces ensures employees can respond appropriately to confusing and stressful situations in the workplace (Badri-Harun et al., 2016). Besides, managers and leaders who are emotionally intelligent manage their employees’ emotions, contributing to the establishment of a productive, effective, and efficient workplace. I think that organizations appoint leaders who can manage their emotions because they can promote effective communication and inspire employees to dedicate their efforts towards achieving high performance. Also, such leaders can manage organizational conflict effectively.
How to Implement Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
There are four practices that organizations and workplaces can use to implement emotional intelligence. The four phases include:
Preparation
Preparation is the first phase during which involves the determination of the organization’s needs. Besides, during preparation, organization leaders are required to evaluate personal limitations and strengths, offer feedback, increase learners’ options, and encourage engagement (Liberty & Kida, 2017). Also, the leaders should connect learning objectives to personal values, modify anticipations, and determine readiness.
Training
Training is the second phase that involves planning on several things in the workplace will implement emotional intelligence. The workplace leaders should plan on how to promote positive relationships between employees, optimize self-directed change, establish clear objectives, and break the objectives into manageable stages. Additionally, the organization should maximize opportunities for emotional intelligence practice. The leaders should also offer regular feedback to the employees on that practice (Liberty & Kida, 2017). The organization should also utilize models to shape desirable traits among the employees. Support should also be provided to the staff. Also, the leaders should improve insight into thought patterns and emotions and prevent relapse by organizing mental slips for the employees.
Transfer
The transfer is the third stage of implementing emotional intelligence. It involves maintaining the skills acquired. The leaders at the workplace should encourage the utilization of skills relating to emotional intelligence learned during the previous phase. Also, the organization should create a culture that supports learning. During this stage, the employees sustain the emotional intelligence skills acquired and apply them in the job.
Evaluation
The last phase entails evaluation of the change that was established in the workplace during training. In this stage, the leaders should conduct ongoing evaluation research and determine areas for improvement (Liberty & Kida, 2017). I believe organizations implement emotional intelligence because it is a skill that can be nurtured among employees, just like other skills.