What is Emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence(EI) is the capacity of understanding our own feelings and the feelings of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing our emotions effectively, in our relationships.

Emotional intelligence is also known as "people smarts" it is not generally included in the type of emotional evaluation included in the traditional concept of IQ, which mainly focuses on conceptual abilities but it is a very important personal attribute.

Currently, we are facing all sorts of emotional reactions due to the COVID 19 Pandemic and it's important to learn how to manage our emotions, least we channel emotions negatively and cause disasters.

Emotional intelligence cannot be thought of as a single characteristic but a wide variety of competencies organised in a few major clusters.

Let's check out on these clusters:-

• Self-awareness

• Self Management

• Social awareness

• Social Skills

If your emotional abilities are not in hand, if you do not have self-awareness, if you are not able to handle your distressing emotions, If you cannot have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.

Daniel Goleman.

Self-awareness

This can be referred to as the ability to understand and identify personal feelings and along with the ability to evaluate them. As you become more self-aware you get in touch with your own feelings, and you become better.

Self-awareness is important in achieving success and if you are not in touch with your feelings it can handicap your overall effectiveness. People who have developed self-awareness are aware of their strengths and weakness, and they are reflective and they learn from their experiences.

Self-aware people also respond well to candid constructive criticism and are always learning and always improving themselves.

Self Management

This is when one has the ability to understand their own emotions and use that understanding to turn situations to their benefit. This ability promotes feelings to reason well and to intentionally act well.

Social Awareness

This refers to how we handle relationships and awareness of other people's feelings, concerns and needs. It's the ability to develop how you recognize and appropriately respond to the feelings and emotions of others.

The three competencies here are empathy, organization awareness and service orientation.

organizational awareness: the ability to understand the power relationships in one's group or organization

Empathy: this is about understanding other people. It can also be referred to as the ability to hear and accurately listen unspoken or partly expressed feelings, thoughts, and concerns of others.

Service orientation: Service orientation is anticipating, recognizing and meeting other peoples needs.

Social Skills

This is the proficiency of suggesting desirable responses to others. People with good social skills are good business leaders in society and effective parents. They lead by examples and they encourage others in positive ways, validating them and creating trust within them.

Why is it important to develop my emotional intelligence?

There are many benefits associated with developing your own emotional intelligence. They vary from personal to professional strengths.

The higher you develop your emotional intelligence the more likely you are to succeed in your personal and professional relationships.

You understand that in life you need the input of other people to succeed so developing healthy relationships is a skill that should be part of your life.

When you understand your strengths and weakness it is essential to superior performance when on the job and handling interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

In Closing Thoughts

By developing emotional intelligence skills one can reduce stress which consequently, has a positive impact on well-being and happiness. Happiness monitors the well-being and interjects positive moods in the way an individual cope with daily demands, challenges and pressures.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will not forget how you made them feel.

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