Chapter 9 : What is emotional intelligence?

Discuss an example how it is used in an

organization?

Emotional intelligence is encompasses a group of verbal and non-verbal skills that

allow an individual to generate, recognize, express, understand and evaluate their own
emotions and those of others in a way that orients their thoughts and actions to fulfill
requirements and respond to the pressures of the surrounding environment, discern between
different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking
and behaviour, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's
goal(s). There are five components of emotional intelligence, they are:

1. Self-awareness

2. Self-management

Self-management is about finding the self-control of emotions and impulses and

mastery needed to take control of one's work. The characteristics that help an employee to
feel and be more productive in the workplace. These skills help an employee communicate
and interact efficiently with fellow workers, supervisors, and even customers. They also help
employees make good decisions and improve time management.

The employee that have self-management characteristic are able in to solve problems
and communicate clearly. Good self-management skills is the ability to be a good decision
maker. This means you are able and willing to take a complex issue or project and break it
down so that a solution can be found by think through difficult tasks, study problems, and
examine and inspect solutions. Good problem-solving skills are often tied to good
communication skills. When you can communicate to others in a manner that is clear and
efficient, you are better able to work through anything. This skill will help you relay data,
suggestions, and instructions by learned how to explain ideas and instructions so that she
could effectively communicate with both colleagues and management alike.

Second, resist stress and manage time, sometimes employees make mistakes because
he or she is under stress and cannot think clearly. For example, an employee so stress out
because he doesn’t have a friend or feel his personality wasn’t accepted by other workers in
the workplace then this makes him forget to complete a task on the due date. If he acquire
skill to resist stress, he will become more productive and minimize workplace mistakes.
 Third, arrive at meetings on time and fully prepared by spending time the day before
to collect any information you may need to bring and think of questions to ask, review your
questions and notes in the hour before the meeting to ensure you are focused on the meeting’s
goals. Plan for the next day before leaving work. Leave time at the end of workday to
organize your calendar, write a new to-do list and review what you did accomplish to see
how successful you were in reaching your daily goals. Keep an organized agenda. You can
write a detailed schedule of events, deadlines or meetings so you can better manage your
projects, tasks, and responsibilities. Consider using a planner or task-tracking application to
organize these items.

Lastly, outline the project goals then determine strict deadlines, and consider using a
calendar to track them each day, week, month and quarter. Assess projects early through ask
questions before you begin a project to ensure you understand exactly what your role is. You
can also ask questions after starting a task to ensure you are completing it correctly or
discover if you need to adjust.

3. Self-motivation

4. Empathy - the ability to sense how others are feeling.

How colleagues are usually meeting up after-work and having lunch together are
examples of sensing how others feeling. Why? Because it can help to keep us out of stress.
People forming close bonds like this could encourage one another as an important element of
an emotionally intelligent workplace.

Emotional Intelligence here also involves putting ourselves in the shoes of others so
that we can find an excuse for their behaviour. For example, if you were a manager and one
employee was not working hard, then it won't be emotionally intelligent to directly assume
that he is lazy or not keen to work, but instead, you should examine his case closer to know if
there are other reasons behind it. Maybe you find that he is afraid to make mistakes or maybe
you find that he lacks self-confidence in his abilities. This shows that we have the ability to
sense people's feelings.

5. Social skills - adapting to and handling the emotions of others.

 How we deal with employees getting upset, having bad moods, and argue with each
other says a lot about our Emotional Intelligence. In this kind of situation, we can choose to
keep quiet and pretend like nothing is happening, or we can also choose to criticize them and
to tell them to stop behaving that way. How we respond to other people's emotional states
shows how well we could be aware and understand them.

When people are allowed to speak and others listen well without interruptions in a
meeting, it’s also a good sign of Emotional Intelligence at play. It shows a mutual respect
between parties and is more likely to lead to a constructive conclusion in meetings. It shows
that we could take care of other people's feelings well without hurting anyone.