Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Emotional intelligence (EI) holds a significant impact on your career and work life and this why it is essential to understand what is it exactly and what is the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Workplace comprises of people that have different personalities, emotions, and strengths and this can significantly affect their way of working. Emotional intelligence is that ability which helps an individual to identify as well as manage their emotions and the emotions of others.

How emotional intelligence will impact your professional life?

Emotional intelligence is integrated into everyday decisions that employers take like promoting, hiring or firing employees. In many companies, hiring managers tend to study the emotional intelligence of the candidates by asking them specific questions to identify those who have a higher degree of EI. Moreover, hiring managers also determine the emotional intelligence of their current employees for understanding their leadership potential.

If you want to land yourself in a higher position, having the right academic background, certifications, as well as professional experiences, are obviously necessary, however, if you want to become successful further and move onto management positions, than emotional intelligence is your key. It has been researched that managers who have higher levels of emotional intelligence rate better in job satisfaction and lower in turnover rates. If you have a career plan that aims at a leadership position than emotional intelligence can make you more productive and happier in your work.

Emotional intelligence in the workplace and leadership

Although emotional intelligence may not be crucial for every type of job, however, it is considered to be a vital attribute for most people that are in leadership positions. To become effective leaders, supervisors, managers and other figures having authorities need to work productively with people working with or under them. A good leader has the trait of creating that type of work environment where every employee is motivated towards their work.

If your leader has a higher emotional intelligence, they can make use of their social skills for fostering trust and rapport with employees. Such leaders view their employees to be an individual within a team who hold unique backgrounds, personalities, and abilities. Effective leaders seek to get emotionally attached to their staff members and make efforts to share their joys and concerns.

How can lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace disrupt your professional life?

From the above discussion, it has become obvious that emotional intelligence is an asset to your professional life. Though, lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace can affect your career in the following five ways:

1.     Rigidity: If you are inflexible in your approach or thinking, or you have the opinion that your decision is the best and the right one, you are surely not a team player. In the professional environment within companies these days, being a team player is necessary.

2.     Insensitivity: If you are insensitive, then you are considered to be uncaring. Moreover, your co-workers will less likely be willing to work with you or offer you any help. Also, if you are insensitive, you will also not serve to be a good leader.

3.     Selfishness: If you think that your agenda is only that matters, that people will perceive you as selfish. To be a professional, it is important that you aim at a win-win situation whenever possible.

4.     Volatility: Tapping your emotions is a good thing; however, conveying them in anger can be harmful to your career. People, who are volatile can dysfunction teams, disrupt projects and upset co-workers.

5.     Arrogance: A trait of arrogant people is that they think they know everything and no one can teach them. If you are arrogant, then you may not become the choice of an employer.

Developing emotional intelligence in the workplace is a successful strategy for not only keeping employees motivated towards their work but, it also fosters a work environment where people care about the feelings and emotions of one another. In the global business world of today, where teamwork is considered to be necessary for success, emotional intelligence will undoubtedly present you as an asset for your employer.

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