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Emotional Intelligence at Work Article
Let’s take a look at another way of dealing with this:
Bob’s response, (high 'EQ'): Similarly, 2 weeks
before the presentation, Bob notices that he feels nervous when
he thinks about the presentation. He says to himself that this is
normal as he hasn’t prepared yet and allows for the fact that he
might be a little excited about it too. He also acknowledges that
he needs a certain level of adrenaline to function at his best in
a performance situation. These interpretations have the following
results:
Bob starts to deal with his nervous feelings by reading up on his
topic and preparing the groundwork.
Whenever he finds himself thinking about the day, he puts his emotional
intelligence skills to good use, allowing himself breathing space
with the thought, "I can’t know that it will be like yet, I don’t
know what I’m going to do". He puts it out of his mind until after
he has prepared his speech.
Once the presentation is prepared, Bob uses relaxation techniques and self hypnosis to run through the presentation whilst feeling
relaxed and humorous. Because of this, several jokes occur to him
that he can use, and he is preparing to succeed. He is also able
to imagine the presentation from his audience’s point of view, which
highlights several areas that need more work.
Due to his relaxed state, Bob’s memory is working really well, and
he begins to get a real feel for the flow of his presentation, without
getting too bogged down in detail.
Bob’s EI skills also enable him to tolerate uncertainty ‘essential
as he doesn’t really know what will happen on the day.
On the day, Bob feels nervous before the presentation, but welcomes
the nerves as part excitement, part performance-enhancers.
He is nervous for the first few minutes but soon gets into his flow;
his jokes go down well and the audience’s laughter makes him even
more comfortable.
Because he is relaxed, his recall works really well and he even
introduces elements he hadn’t thought of beforehand, making the
presentation sound even more spontaneous and natural.
Good old Bob!
But seriously, the subtle yet effective skills employed by Bob are
emotional intelligence skills that can be learned. So too are the
many others that enable you to:
- Motivate others
- Communicate elegantly and effectively
- Listen so you get the real message
- Take setbacks without feeling distraught
- Stop anger ruining your health, relationships and job prospects
- Enjoy extremely satisfying and productive relationships
- Protect yourself, your family and your friends from emotional problems.
- Be more comfortable with uncertainty
So I hope I’ve made my case that increasing your EQ is a great thing to do. And if you’re still not sure about emotional intelligence, read the book that made it popular, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. It's a fantastic read.
So what can you do if you want to increase your emotional intelligence?
Read the book above - I repeat, it's a fantastic read if you're interested in how your emotions work and how you can increase your emotional intelligence.
(If you like, here you can take an emotional intelligence (EQ) test.)
As with any self-directed short tests, this isn't really to be relied upon - but it can be fun ! Thanks for reading, if you want to see more of our site, why not start at the Personal Development Centre.
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