Emotional Intelligence in Management

While intellectual intelligence is surely important to be successful in life, there is something which is considered even more important, emotional intelligence. It refers to a form of intelligence which involves having the ability to control one’s feelings and emotions and also those of others. It requires gauging and understanding the reactions of others and using that information to the benefit of everyone.

Emotional intelligence is based on the following five principles:

  1. Self-Awareness refers to the awareness one has about themselves. This is an ability to channel all the negativity away from the mind and embrace positive thoughts. It’s being able to stay neutral in a situation and then taking the right and informed decision.
  2. Self-Motivation goes beyond money and wealth. It focuses on energy and persistence to improve one’s life but not just in terms of monetary gains.
  3. Self-control emotions. The ability to control one’s negative emotions and thinking before acting.
  4. The ability to understand the emotional state of others around one’s self. It’s an ability to understand the pain of others. To decipher their feelings taking nonverbal cues.
  5. Harmonisation of human relationships. This can be taken as the ability to manage relationships and using these skills to move forward. Well-developed social skills like persuasiveness and exceptional leadership abilities.

The importance of emotional intelligence in management

Emotional intelligence is directly related to exceptional management skills. It can help organisations identify individuals who could become exceptional leaders, improving productivity of employees and improving the overall culture within the organisation.

The following are the four skills necessary for every leader, these include:

  • The skills to make everyone work in a group and feel comfortable around one another
  • Negotiation skill which are beyond basic which help resolve conflicts
  • Establishing good personal relationships and the ability to empathise
  • Social analysis of individual within an organisation and understanding their feelings and perceptions

Any company which wants to flourish should focus on helping build their leaders emotional intelligence. It could realty help improve the productivity in the company at all levels. It mean avoiding intimidation at all costs and ensuring that everyone working within the organisation is comfortable and happy with their situation. Making sure that employees are working at their comfort level can do a great job for improving their productivity as well.

How can one become emotionally intelligent?

It’s not necessary to be born with emotional intelligence. It is more of an acquired skill. One which can be developed. A person can train themselves to become more emotionally intelligent. These don’t necessary need to be innately developed. Rather it’s a slow process which one acquires through special training or their own experience working in a specific field.

In today’s corporate world, it is extremely necessary to have leaders who are not just brilliant intellectually but they should also be emotionally intelligent as well. It provides them with ability to decipher situations and act accordingly. It would help them identify their own emotions and also those of others around them. It helps building them an ability to use those emotions in a positive manner and create a balanced work environment.