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What is emotional intelligence and why does it play such an important role in our lives and workplace? In the interview with Sandra Liepa - business trainer and consultant in the leading Latvian training company - Komercizglītības centrs, we tried to find out why it’s so important to develop your EI to have a more successful work environment.
Emotional intelligence (or EI) is one of the many intelligence types. It’s a topic which is becoming more and more popular among students, teachers and leaders of many companies. Mayer & Salovey defines emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive, access, generate and understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. In his book Working With Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman determined that EQ (emotional quotient) counts for twice as much as IQ.
At work, similarly as in personal life, EI helps us to realize our potential, our strengths and weaknesses. It helps us to work successfully in teams, to approach each situation with empathy, trying to understand different perspectives. EI improves our ability to control our emotions, to build and maintain good relationships with our colleagues and to work under a lot of pressure. EI also determines how good of a leader you are. It helps to see different regularities and gives us the ability to present ourselves and not be afraid to express our opinions and thoughts.
Many businesses and their employees are working with training companies to develop EI and create a better overall work environment. Sandra Liepa says: “In order for employees to be more successful, it is extremely important to consider the physical and emotional needs, fears and concerns of their employees, and just as important is to address work problems and make the critical decisions needed to maintain the business. It may be difficult for a manager to achieve the results and goals of the work without observing the feelings of his employees or avoiding any kind of conflicts. Failure to be empathetic can lead to burnout or fear of conflict without requiring proper performance, jeopardizing overall results. The manager must be able to delegate tasks or explain demands without subjugation, arrogance, threats or guilt.”
So in conclusion - why do you need to develop emotional intelligence? Easy! Just like Sandra Liepa responded in the interview, long story short: “EI helps you to live easier”. For both business and for personal reasons, emotional intelligence helps us to make our everyday lives better. There are many courses and programs out there for you that teaches how to work on your EI. All you need to do is to have the motivation and will to grow.
The article was created in cooperation with the #futurecreators program implemented in the incubator, the author of the article: Žaklīna Rodņina