THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN BUSINESS

We all have heard of IQ and probably many times used that word to describe someone's Intelligence on many occasions but would you be able to define EQ, if I asked you to?

Maybe, yes!

Maybe, no!

The answer would depend on an individual's awareness and their perception of this term.

So, what is Emotional Intelligence?

When you are able to acknowledge, understand, and effectively manage yours as well as the emotions of others, then you would become better at fostering and forging long term relationship and make a well-informed decision. When our and others feelings are adequately regulated and natural flow in the manner that it motivates people to chalk out better, practical, and achievable plans in their life. 

When talking in the context of the business, emotional Intelligence means identifying, understanding, and working on the emotions of themselves and those around them to create a more healthy and productive environment. 

Quoting behavioral science journalist, Daniel Goleman, "The most effective [business] leaders are all alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence."

This is not to say that your college education, your experience, and the skill sets are not necessary today's time and age of cut-throat competition, but to actually make yourself and the business survive you don't need just a good business sense but also the right balance of emotions to steer the organization towards a healthy, successful and happy future. 

Emotions are underestimated, or those displaying them are considered weaklings, but such should not be the case ever or anymore. Emotions are natural; what's needed from us is to think on it and differentiate the positive from harmful so as to take a well-informed decision about the future. This will define how your business will operate and evolve in the future. 

Did you know that emotional Intelligence determines 30% of occupational performance? Yes and what might not get resolved by your industrial expertise might be easy to navigate through daily practice of Emotional Intelligence. 

Being academically gifted, and having perspective emotional Intelligence are two different things, but you need both to be able to operate a business successfully. Emotional Intelligence is a critical factor that will decide how your employees will work and how will your organization move ahead. After all, you can not just run an organization by churning out products ruthlessly and meeting the deadlines you need a human element to make sure the organization flourishes and expands. 

But emotional Intelligence is not just a single entity; it is made of several different elements:

• EMPATHY: 

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You know the old saying, "put yourself in someone else's shoes"? Yes, that is hat empathy is, to not just understand what the other is feeling but going out of the way and know what the other person is experiencing. 

• SELF AWARENESS:

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You should know what you are feeling, expressing, and why. You need to learn to address the emotions that led to the outburst in the office and work on it. By being self-aware, you understand the emotions and the actions that it leads to, helping you improve. 

• SOCIAL SKILLS:

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While understanding yours and others feeling is crucial for growing your Emotional Intelligence, you need to be able to be good at interacting with people, striking a healthy and progressive conversation, build strong relationships. For a person to lead a business, they need to have par listening skills, leadership qualities, communication abilities. 

• SELF REGULATION:

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Like you make sure that every process that leads to production is the business is optimally regulated; similarly, you need to make sure that your emotions are appropriately displayed at the right time. It doesn't mean bottling up your emotions, but understanding the gravity of the situation and choose the right time to put forward what you are feeling. 

Emotional Intelligence, when the channeled right has the potential to benefit businesses in the long term:

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• Keeping aside the capital investment, what else drove you to start the business? The motivation to start something that will add value to the life of the people around? The intuition to take the risk? All this stems from emotional Intelligence and help in identifying issues, resolving them, and make a more well-informed decision regarding business solutions.  
• Being an entrepreneur myself, I know what a struggle it is to establish an amicable relationship with the client's, employees, and everyone involved. There is a lot of communication gap and misunderstanding, which is not addressed and resolved at the right time might bring down the organization like a house of cards. EQ helps everyone understand the importance of effective communication, help solve issues between the individuals and promote a healthy environment. 
• Per a Gallup study, employees who have managers with high EQ are four times less likely to leave than those with managers that have low EQ. With EQ incorporated in the business operations, the workforce feels safe enough to talk about anything business related and put forth their ideas that will help the authority make sound business decision thereby enhancing the stability of the company. 
• A good emotional intelligence factor helps you sail through the setbacks, meet tight deadlines, stay calm in time for reduced resources, and react to unforeseen changes and negative feedback in a more rational manner. 
• The organization needs to be on the same page with the vision of the business. Emotional Intelligence can help bring consistency to the range of emotion that employees feel throughout their working hours and align it to create a shared vision for the success of the business. 
• What is one of the skills that ensure business success? Leadership!

Emotional Intelligence helps you keep a check on your feelings; negative and positive, which then impact your decision and help you make sound leadership decisions. 

By now, you would have understood the importance of incorporating emotional Intelligence in your business in developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships and communication. 

I would conclude my stand on Emotional Intelligence in business with a straightforward quote by Daniel Goleman which goes, "IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership."

So, what's your take on the significance of Emotional Intelligence in business?

Share in the comments below!