The benefits of Emotional Intelligence
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| Emotional Intelligence |
THE EIGHT (8) INTELLIGENCES
The term “Intelligence” refers to “the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal”
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify, understand, use and manage emotions in a positive manner so as to enhance communication, relieve stress, overcome challenges, empathize with others and defuse conflict. The scope of emotional intelligence is wide and covers many different aspects of our daily lives such as the way in which we behave and interact with others.
An emotional intelligent person is able to recognize his own emotional state as well as the emotional states of others. This makes him attractive and draws other people towards him. Having a clear understanding of the emotional states of the people you interact with will help you to relate well with them, achieve greater success at the workplace, form healthier relationships and lead a more satisfying life.
Compared to intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence is considered more important
Through relationship management, you can create and nurture relationships that are beneficial to your personal and corporate development. An emotional intelligent person is able to Collaborate and Cooperate – This aspect of social skills enables you to harmoniously join forces with others towards a defined goal.
Psychologists agree that IQ alone is not sufficient in achieving happiness and success in life. According to their findings, IQ accounts for approximately 10 to 25 percent while emotional intelligence (EQ) accounts for 75 percent and above.
It is in the public domain that people who are smart are not necessarily successful and fulfilled in life. For instance, there are people who are brilliant in academics but when it comes to personal relationships, they are inept. This is because such people have a high intelligence quotient but low levels of emotional intelligence.
It is therefore important that every one of us develop a mature emotional intelligence framework that will help us to understand, negotiate and empathize with others. This is particularly important because the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and as such we are constantly exposed to cultural shocks from different parts of the globe.
The benefits of emotional intelligence:-
1. Conflict Management
Conflicts do occur at one point or another without a preamble. Your ability to resolve any conflict is dependent upon your level of understanding of the emotions of people involved. If you can successfully discern and empathize with the feelings and perspectives of the people in the conflict, it becomes easy to solve such situations or even prevent them from occurring. Emotional intelligence makes us better negotiators because it gives us insights into the desires and needs of the parties in contention. When you know the bone of contention, resolving a conflict becomes much easier.
2. Mental Well-Being
Our attitude and outlook on life is shaped by emotional intelligence. If your EQ levels are low, you are likely to experience anxiety, depression and mood swings. This will in turn erode your positivity and optimism making your life dull and unpleasant. Your mental stability is usually at its highest when all your faculties including your ability to understand and interpret your emotions are working right.
3. Personal Effectiveness
Emotional intelligence is regarded as a key ingredient in personal success. It gives you the ability to manage your affairs and those of others successfully. Emotional intelligence equips you with tools and strategies that make you more aware of yourself and teach you how to manage your emotions, both the positive and the negative. This increases your personal effectiveness.
4. Professional Relationships
Through emotional intelligence, you will understand what makes people tick. This is crucial in developing a harmonious and positive working environment and relationships. By boosting your emotional intelligence, your ability to interact and communicate more effectively with others will also go up. This in turn will enhance your professional relationships.
5. Thinking Skills
What makes a problem difficult to solve may not be necessarily its complexity but rather the perspective that you have. Old difficulties can be solved by replacing old perspectives with new perspectives. Emotional intelligence also helps in developing your strategic thinking capacity and your ability to inspire and motivate your team.
6. Leadership Capability
Effective leadership requires that you understand and empathize with the people that you lead. Emotional intelligence equips you with strategies that are crucial in influencing, persuading, motivating
7. Physical Well-Being
As human beings, our emotional intelligence has a significant impact on our overall well-being. Stress management, which is closely tied to our emotional state, gives us the unique ability to react in a positive way even as we pass through storms of life. This is important because stress can weaken our physical abilities, lower our immune system and ultimately decrease the quality of life.
8. Success
Our ability to focus on a goal is a sum total of our internal motivators and self confidence. Higher levels of emotional intelligence give us self discipline and keep us on course towards attaining our goal. In addition, EQ allows us to create better support networks, persevere with an incredible degree of resilience and overcome setbacks that stand between us and our success. An emotional intelligent person can delay instant gratification and focus on the long term benefits of a certain course of action which boosts his chances of success.
