Professionals depend upon a range of skills to promote their success. Among them, emotional intelligence is an important asset that enables professionals to develop connections with clients and partners alike.
Properly honed, emotional intelligence skills can significantly boost of an organization’s results in terms of productivity, revenue and more. However, just like technical skills, these emotional intelligence skills also need proper training and development to flourish.
Dedicating time to improving one's emotional intelligence will certainly pay off, as long-term business success may hinge on one's ability to create and maintain a connection. Below, 10 members of Forbes Human Resources Council look at how emotional intelligence skills can boost business success, and the best ways professionals can go about developing those skills.
1. Creating Awareness And Reflection
The first step in honing any emotional intelligence skills is simply creating awareness and reflecting on behaviors. If you are capable of reflecting honestly on your actions and communication, you can begin to train yourself to modify behaviors that aren't serving you, create the self-awareness to regulate emotions and reactions, and create the space for others to do the same. - Gwyn Purdue, Wafra Inc.
2. Enabling Quick Decision-Making
With hyperconnectivity, increasing competition and rapid technology advances, quality high-velocity decision-making is a competitive advantage. This requires facts, history and data balanced with emotional intelligence. A few thoughts: Respond don’t react; define value proposition; consider pride, inclusion, empathy, risk mitigation and stakeholder optics. - MJ Vigil, PEMCO Insurance
3. Creating A Positive Impact
Emotional intelligence is the defining factor for any successful leader. When leaders master these skills they build trust, empower team members and regulate their emotions to make fact-based decisions for better business outcomes. To sharpen EQ, start in the discovery phase. Take an assessment, get insight and understand your EQ strengths and weaknesses so you can be thoughtful in how you practice these skills daily. - Chatelle Lynch, McAfee
4. Spotting Business Issues Ahead Of Time
Those with a high EQ are often good at spotting minor changes in others. They may notice changes that indicate someone is struggling, disengaged or trying to hide a mistake. By spotting these changes in the behavior of others, they can address it directly and hopefully stop a problem from getting worse. - Karla Reffold, BeecherMadden
5. Enabling Smoother Operations
Employees and leaders who employ emotional intelligence (EQ) have shown to be successful at solving employee engagement, morale, and retention issues, as well as developing teams and individuals who work better together at driving business outcomes. There is no shortage of training on EQ, so the first step is to educate yourself on where you are and which areas you can focus on as a way to improve. - Dr. Timothy J. Giardino, Cantata Health & Meta Healthcare IT Solutions
6. Correcting Nonproductive Behavior
Self-awareness is a great emotional intelligence skill because it can help a person better relate to others, correct nonproductive behavior, and uncover how their individual purpose fits into an organization’s purpose. To develop the skill, at the end of each day, honestly evaluate your actions to see what worked and what didn’t, then determine specific ways to improve your performance. - Genine Wilson, Kelly Services
7. Creating A High-Performance Culture
Leaders who are people-smart foster a high-performance culture which results in higher productivity and profitability. To hone EQ skills, focus on building your relationship management skills, which involves enhancing your active listening skills, practicing responding instead of reacting in your communications with others, and practicing empathy to establish a deeper connection. - Bridgette Wilder, Wilder HR Management & EEO Consulting
8. Having A Reflective Listening Culture
Emotional intelligence has shown to create better working conditions for collaboration, empathy, cross-communication and conflict resolution. One way to live your EQ is to lean into reflective listening. Reflective Listening is seeking to understand what is being communicated and the intent. By leaning into it, you are creating a space for better communication and room for empathy and clarity. - Kelly Loudermilk, BuildHR, Inc.
9. Improving The Customer Experience
Empathy is important in any company. Having team members in tune to what others are feeling not only helps the team build positive working relationships, but also allows them to be aware of the customer and examine their experience on the other end. Taking time to see things from another point of view helps employees identify areas of improvement related to the customer experience. - Debi Bliazis, Champions School of Real Estate
10. Building And Driving Successful Teams
Employees with high EQ typically navigate the workplace more effectively. They are seen as better managers due to their ability to build and drive successful teams. People don't work for companies, they work for people. Better managers are able to hire and retain top talent, boosting business results in the process. - Sherrie Suski, Tricon American Homes
