Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient, is the ability to comprehend, use and manage one’s own emotions and those of others positively. Various physical cues, such as facial expressions and postures, are worldly accepted as representative of sentiments. Once a person can recognize their emotions, they can then use that knowledge to regulate their emotions to plan, motivate, and attain their own goals. Emotional intelligence plays an essential role in leadership and management, mostly regarding enhancing employee job satisfaction. In addition, critical elements of emotional intelligence such as relationship management, self-awareness, social awareness, and self-management, are related to improving personal and work resilience.
Self-awareness refers to the ability of a person to appropriately identify their emotions, understand why they react in a certain way, and realize the impact on other people’s lives. Self-awareness affects school and works positively by placing one’s strengths and weaknesses (Rechberg, 2020). For instance, I know I can procrastinate; therefore, I take time and go to the library to complete my homework to avoid the last-minute rush. I have discovered that I need to develop better learning habits that have helped me become more productive. Having better self-awareness and an understanding of managing my weaknesses will help me minimize my inadequacies.
Self-management is the ability to express and control one’s feelings and emotions in the right way. Five skills go hand in hand will this element, which include optimism, initiative, achievement, transparency, and adaptability (Strugar Jelača et al., 2022). For a manager to be efficient, they need attainable goals, the grit to face all the setbacks and failures, and the capabilities to accept criticism and changes positively. A good manager should be confident and honest enough to set a perfect example for subordinates. To become a good manager and student, I need to accept failures and learn how to move on. This is because I tend to get upset whenever I receive bad news. Self-management is an essential element in our lives as it helps in managing anger, stress, and frustrations and also being able to make decisions even in a stressful situation.
Social awareness is a skill that gives a person the ability to understand others and how they perceive others. For instance, managers need to be aware of other people’s emotions. Otherwise, they can be a risk of becoming indifferent and cold. As a student, social awareness is essential as I understand how to deal with friends and classmates. When students are working together, they must be aware of how to help each other, contribute fairly in the workload, and recognize their weaknesses, strengths, and emotions (Tomasello, 2018). I always do better when listening and comprehending my classmate’s discussion posts. Relationship management is the capability of an individual to lead, influence, and teach other people at school or work. A student must be able to manage their school relationships appropriately while maintaining personal and professional boundaries. As a student, I need to work harder to maintain my relationships with my classmates since I tend to get frustrated with them.
In conclusion, it is essential for people to continuously develop their emotional intelligence as it helps in managing stress and collaborating well with others. For instance, healthcare leaders can use emotional intelligence to lower their stress whenever there is a lot of pressure to be productive. In addition, emotional intelligence improves communication and results in a better doctor-patient relationship. Therefore, better communication skills are some of the resources that healthcare leaders use to continuously develop their emotional intelligence competency.
References
Rechberg, I. D. (2020). Emotional intelligence and knowledge management: A necessary link?. Knowledge and Process Management, 27(1), 15-24. Web.
Strugar Jelača, M., Bjekić, R., Berber, N., Aleksić, M., Slavić, A., & Marić, S. (2022). Impact of managers’ emotional competencies on organizational performance. Sustainability, 14(14), 8800. Web.
Tomasello, M. (2018). How children come to understand false beliefs: A shared intentionality account. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(34), 8491-8498. Web.