Emotional intelligence is vital for business success, developed through training and mentoring. Exemplary leadership demonstrates emotionally intelligent behaviour, enhancing interpersonal relationships and fostering team dynamics, empathy, and collaboration. Mastering it advances your career and organization.
Emotional intelligence in business settings is nurtured and developed through training, coaching, and mentoring. Exemplary leadership is the most important tool for demonstrating emotionally intelligent behaviour with staff. Emotional intelligence in business can help enhance trust, transparency, and assertiveness in both internal and external interactions. Equipping leaders and employees with emotional intelligence training can help drive business profitability, team empowerment, and overall performance.
Emotional intelligence is a key factor in the success of any business. We will explore the role of leaders and employees in establishing emotional intelligence (EI) as a central focus of workplace culture. Companies can cultivate a transparent and respectful company culture to foment sustainable growth.
In recent decades, the definition of leadership has been changing, and an emphasis on emotional intelligence has emerged. Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has become recognized for its correlation to success in work and personal life, to motivation and to overall well-being. In business, high-EQ people have become desirable to employers due to the various advantages they enjoy.
Some of the most successful and influential people in history have had high emotional intelligence, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Warren Buffett.
Emotional Intelligence (EI), also known as Emotional Quotient (EQ), refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It involves self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Emotional Intelligence embraces and draws from numerous other branches of behavioural, emotional and communications theories, such as NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Transactional Analysis, and empathy. By developing our Emotional Intelligence in these areas and the five EQ domains we can become more productive and successful at what we do, and help others to be more productive and successful too. The process and outcomes of Emotional Intelligence development also contain many elements known to reduce stress for individuals and organizations, by decreasing conflict, improving relationships and understanding, and increasing stability, continuity and harmony.
In business, EI is essential as it affects interactions, stress management, and decision-making. High EI improves teamwork and communication, boosting productivity. Popularized by Daniel Goleman's 1995 book, the concept developed in the 1970s and 80s by psychologists like Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey, and John Mayer. Emotional Intelligence is crucial for understanding behaviours and assessing skills, influencing HR, management, and customer relations. Unlike IQ, EQ considers broader intelligence aspects, crucial for success. While this article centres on Goleman's interpretation, Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso's work is also important.
Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:
Emotional Intelligence links strongly with concepts of love and spirituality: bringing compassion and humanity to work, and also to 'Multiple Intelligence' theory which illustrates and measures the range of capabilities people possess, and the fact that everybody has value.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence are more adept at managing their own emotions and understanding the emotions of their team members. This ability helps them build trust, inspire and motivate their teams, and navigate the complexities of human interactions within the workplace.
Emotional intelligence enables leaders to communicate effectively, handle stress and conflict with composure, and make balanced decisions that consider the well-being of their employees. These skills are essential for creating a supportive and high-performing work culture.
1. Self-awareness: Recognizing and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, your emotions and moods, and the effects these things have on other people. A self-aware person is not easily offended by criticism, but rather learns and adapts.
2. Self-Regulation: To act thoughtfully and express your emotions with maturity and restraint. Instead of being driven by emotions and impulses, an emotionally intelligent person masters their impulses and emotional reactions.
3. Internal Motivation: Individuals with high emotional intelligence are driven by self-motivation, aiming for personal growth and fulfilment instead of financial rewards, status, or external recognition. This might involve engaging in humanitarian efforts out of genuine passion, rather than pursuing the most lucrative career options.
4. Empathy: Empathy means recognizing, comprehending, and experiencing the emotions of others. Unlike sympathy, empathy entails truly sharing in the emotional journey of another person. For instance, when a friend loses a family member, sympathy might be sending flowers and offering a hug, whereas empathy is shedding tears alongside that friend, not out of obligation, but because you genuinely feel their pain. People with empathy deeply understand and actively respond to others' needs.
Robert F. Kennedy exemplified an empathetic leader; when he witnessed the hardships faced by African Americans, he was profoundly moved and adjusted his political priorities to address their concerns.
5. People Skills: Emotionally intelligent people easily build trust and respect with others. They are good at managing relationships and building networks, and they avoid power struggles and deceitfulness. Their high levels of the first four components of EQ make for deep bonds and genuine, non-competitive friendships.
Teams that exhibit high emotional intelligence tend to have better communication, collaboration, and mutual respect among members. EI helps team members understand and appreciate diverse perspectives, leading to more innovative and effective problem-solving.
By fostering an environment where emotions are acknowledged and managed constructively, teams can reduce misunderstandings and conflicts, improve morale, and enhance overall productivity. Leaders can cultivate this by encouraging open communication and emotional awareness within the team.
Emotional intelligence is typically broken down into four core competencies:
Self-awareness is at the core of everything. It describes your ability to not only understand your strengths and weaknesses but to recognize your emotions and their effect on you and your team’s performance.
According to research by organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, 95 per cent of people think they’re self-aware, but only 10 to 15 per cent are, and that can pose problems for your employees. Working with colleagues who aren’t self-aware can cut a team’s success in half and, according to Eurich’s research, lead to increased stress and decreased motivation.
To bring out the best in others, you first need to bring out the best in yourself, which is where self-awareness comes into play. One easy way to assess your self-awareness is by completing 360-degree feedback, in which you evaluate your performance and then match it up against the opinions of your boss, peers, and direct reports. Through this process, you’ll gain insights into your behaviour and discover how you’re perceived in the organization.
Self-management refers to the ability to manage your emotions, particularly in stressful situations, and maintain a positive outlook despite setbacks. Leaders who lack self-management tend to react and have a harder time keeping their impulses in check.
A reaction tends to be automatic. The more in tune you are with your emotional intelligence, however, the easier you can make the transition from reaction to response. It's important to pause, breathe, collect yourself, and do whatever it takes to manage your emotions—whether that means taking a walk or calling a friend—so that you can more appropriately and intentionally respond to stress and adversity.
While it’s important to understand and manage your emotions, you also need to know how to read a room. Social awareness describes your ability to recognize others’ emotions and the dynamics in play within your organization.
Leaders who excel in social awareness practice empathy. They strive to understand their colleagues’ feelings and perspectives, which enables them to communicate and collaborate more effectively with their peers.
Global leadership development firm DDI ranks empathy as the number one leadership skill, reporting that leaders who master empathy perform more than 40 per cent higher in coaching, engaging others, and decision-making. In a separate study by the Center for Creative Leadership (pdf), researchers found that managers who show more empathy toward their direct reports are viewed as better performers by their bosses.
By communicating with empathy, you can better support your team, all while improving your performance.
Relationship management refers to your ability to influence, coach, and mentor others, and resolve conflict effectively.
Some prefer to avoid conflict, but it’s important to properly address issues as they arise. Research shows that every unaddressed conflict can waste about eight hours of company time in gossip and other unproductive activities, putting a drain on resources and morale.
If you want to keep your team happy, you need to have those tough conversations. In a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 72 per cent of employees ranked “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” as the top factor in job satisfaction.
From the business development point of view, emotional intelligence plays a central role in the quality of interactions. This enables the consolidation of an assertive communicational style, transparent and respectful. These stakeholders can be peers, managers, subordinates, project teams, technical consultants, candidates, and clients.
Additionally, it enables the emotionally intelligent business developer to manage stress and overcome delicate moments. As such, this moments are not marked by mostly negative emotions, such as sadness, anger, anguish, or disappointment. Emotional intelligence facilitates the mapping and effective management of these emotions, both within themselves and in their interaction with others.
Emotional intelligence in business is also reflected at the level of the business developer’s motivation. It enables it not to oscillate as a result of poor emotional management. Moreover, it contributes to increased productivity overall, which positively impacts the achievement of individual and business goals.
Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to positively influence their teams. They foster a positive, safe and transparent work environment, opening space for creativity and the prompting of a solution-oriented mindset.
In technology consulting, the business development manager’s job often involves coaching teams and consolidating robust and sustained leadership. Emotional intelligence takes on a premium role in order to achieve business objectives.
Luckily for humanity, there are ways to increase emotional intelligence through practice. Here are some of them!
• Pause before speaking, acting or responding. This allows for initial impulses to fade, and for undistorted reflection and reasoning to occur.
• Listen to others. Listening allows us to better understand the needs and emotions of others. Listening takes the focus off one’s own needs and shifts it to those of everyone, enabling better solutions that benefit more people.
• Attempt to control your thoughts. We cannot control what happens to us, or the emotions we feel in a moment, but we can control how we respond to them if we practice directing our thoughts. Rather than blaming oneself or another person when something negative occurs, consider alternative explanations. Maybe the circumstances leading to such an event resulted from many combined factors, the product of which was beyond any one person’s control.
• Praise others. Praising others on a habitual basis trains your brain to focus on the good in others, which encourages empathy and allows for a deeper understanding of people’s needs and motivations. Praise also sets the stage for thoughtful discussions on tough issues, as it decreases defensiveness and encourages openness to opposing thoughts.
• Reflect on criticism and search for ways to grow from it. Criticism can sometimes be hurtful, but it can always be helpful, as it exposes us to true outside perspectives. In the face of criticism, ask yourself: How can I improve and grow from this?
• Pay attention to body language. Much of the communication is non-verbal. If you only listen with your ears, you could be missing out on how a person really feels, and even efforts to help them will thus be misinformed.
• Apologize. Intentions get misunderstood and feelings get hurt regularly. Apologizing shows compassion and encourages us to better understand one another while building trust and respect.
• Try to see from another person’s point of view. When in disagreement, consider the needs, motivations and emotions that may be shaping another’s priorities and opinions. Ask the reasons behind their thoughts and try to genuinely understand them. Maybe then, common ground will be found.
• Communicate your feelings. When you are offended or upset, communicate to the offending party in a calm, non-threatening way so everyone can gain a mutual understanding and avoid future problems.
In business and leadership, it is clear why emotional intelligence is so important. In the increasingly diverse world we live in, EQ is a necessary tool for providing social and economic solutions to people of vastly different circumstances and needs.
Emotional intelligence plays a significant role in customer relations. Employees with high EI can better understand and respond to customer needs and emotions, leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
By demonstrating empathy, active listening, and effective communication, businesses can create a more personalized and positive customer experience. This not only helps in retaining existing customers but also attracts new ones through positive word-of-mouth and a strong reputation.
Encourage self-awareness by providing opportunities for employees to reflect on their emotions and behaviours. This can be done through regular feedback sessions, mindfulness practices, and training programs focused on emotional intelligence.
Promote a culture of empathy and active listening. Encourage employees to understand and validate each other’s feelings and perspectives. This can be achieved through team-building activities, open communication channels, and conflict-resolution workshops.
Provide resources and support for stress management. This includes offering wellness programs, flexible work arrangements, and creating a supportive work environment where employees feel safe to express their emotions.
The way we communicate with the team and with external stakeholders is crucial in establishing strong business relationships. However, there are many challenges in creating sustained and consistent business relationships, as a result of several factors.
Lack of communicational or behavioural flexibility in interacting with interlocutors who value a different communicational approach than ours is one of the factors that pose a challenge in building business relationships.
Difficulty in demonstrating empathic concern for the other, not being able to put oneself in the position of the other and act accordingly, with empathy and respect is also one of the challenges we identify.
Another frequent challenge in maintaining professional relationships is the struggle to overcome obstacles presented by various stakeholders, including internal teams and customers. Additionally, individuals often find it difficult to emotionally recover from negative situations, leading these experiences to have a significant impact on motivation and undermine self-confidence, self-esteem, and the ability to maintain a positive and solution-oriented mindset.
Emotional intelligence immediately impacts one’s way of communicating. An emotionally intelligent employee can perform competent emotional self-management. They are also able to regulate the emotions around them and to positively influence their surrounding environment.
In this sense, emotional intelligence in business has a decisive role in overcoming the challenges presented above. It contributes to assertive and empathetic communication, and to an inclusive approach adapted to each interlocutor. Conflict resolution, and to the creation of constructive and meaningful business relationships are also improved by it.