Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, manage, and understand emotions as well as those of other people. By working on and increasing these skills, you can become more emotionally intelligent and raise your EQ.
Self-Awareness
- Self-awareness, or the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions, is a critical emotional intelligence skill
- Beyond just recognizing your emotions, self-aware individuals also recognize the relationships between the things they feel and how they behave, recognize their own strengths and limitations, are open to new experiences, and learn from their interactions with others
Empathy
- This involves more than just being able to recognize the emotional states of others. It also involves your responses to people based on this information
- For example, if you sense someone is feeling sad, how do you respond?
- Being empathetic also allows you to understand the power dynamics that often influence social relationships
Motivation
- People who are emotionally intelligent are motivated by things beyond external rewards like fame, money, recognition, and acclaim
- They seek internal rewards, experience flow from being totally in tune with activity, and pursue peak experiences
- Those who are competent in this area tend to be action-oriented and have a high need for achievement
Self-Regulation
- Emotional intelligence requires you to be able to regulate and manage your emotions
- This doesn’t mean putting emotions on lockdown and hiding your true feelings-it simply means waiting for the right time and place to express them
- Self-regulation is all about expressing your emotions appropriately
Social Skills
- Having strong social skills allows people to build meaningful relationships with other people and develop a stronger understanding of themselves and others
- True emotional understanding involves more than just understanding your own emotions and those of others. You also need to be able to put this information to work in your daily interactions and communications
