What Is Emotional Intelligence? How to Strengthen This Key Workplace Skill

Emotional intelligence (sometimes abbreviated as EI or EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in yourself and others. It's a broad term that encompasses several prized workplace skills, such as active listening, empathy, and leadership.

Cultivating your EI can lead to smoother interactions, more productive working relationships, and better stress management. Learn more about emotional intelligence, including key benefits and how to strengthen it.

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What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of skills that helps you identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of those around you. It's not unique to the workplace, but it's often a highly valued workplace skill. With higher levels of emotional intelligence, you are more likely to respond calmly to conflict, empathize with colleagues, and recognize how emotions can influence behavior.  

Emotional intelligence may sometimes be referred to as emotional quotient (EQ), which is often considered the flipside of IQ—a measurement of your cognitive intelligence. The psychologist Dr. Daniel Goleman popularized the concept of emotional intelligence in the 1990s with his book Emotional Intelligence. He argued that EQ is just as crucial as IQ for success, especially in leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal relationships.

5 components of emotional intelligence 

Let's review the different traits that make up emotional intelligence.

1. Self-awareness

Self-awareness helps you develop an understanding of how others may perceive your words and actions. When you are self-aware, you can facilitate positive interactions and limit offensive actions.

Self-awareness also helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses, so you can choose tasks to strengthen the former while looking for ways to improve the latter. In a professional setting, you're displaying self-awareness when you notice an action is making a colleague uncomfortable and refrain from that action in the future.

2. Self-regulation

Self-regulation involves managing your behavior when you encounter a difficult conversation or situation. In a professional setting, you self-regulate when you think before you speak or take action.

As an emotionally intelligent individual, it is important to recognize your emotions and seek ways to self-regulate instead of reacting. This can be critical when navigating the workplace. For example, if a coworker's poor time management stresses you out, you may want to take a short walk at lunch to regulate yourself and then reapproach the situation to find a reasonable compromise.

3. Motivation

Motivation is the driving force that compels us to take action, pursue goals, and overcome challenges. As an emotionally intelligent individual, you can use your emotions and internal drive to stay focused on your goals, even when faced with obstacles or setbacks. With higher emotional intelligence, you may feel more compelled to complete personal goals, follow passions, and be intrinsically motivated toward personal growth.

In a professional setting, motivation is used when you decide to finish your tasks or complete your next milestone, even when you feel tired or discouraged.

4. Social skills

Social skills refer to your ability to recognize and understand the emotions, perspectives, and needs of those around you. This involves being attentive to social cues, such as nonverbal body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. By using social skills, you can accurately perceive and interpret nonverbal and verbal cues, allowing you to respond appropriately to the emotions and needs of others. 

In a professional setting, you're practicing social skills when you take the time to actively listen to your colleagues and consider their perspectives when making decisions or completing tasks.

5. Empathy

Empathy is your ability to understand and share others' feelings. This component of emotional intelligence refers to how well you connect with others on a deeper level, fostering trust, compassion, and support. Empathy is crucial in personal and professional relationships, as it helps create a sense of belonging and understanding.

In a professional setting, empathy is displayed when you respond to the emotional needs of others in your workplace. For example, if a teammate is ill and has difficulty finishing their tasks, you show empathy when you offer to help them so they can rest.

Who uses emotional intelligence in the workplace?

Emotional intelligence is important for everyone in the workplace to foster effective communication, collaboration, and overall success. As a manager, you might use emotional intelligence to help resolve conflict, empathize with your employees, and motivate your team. As an employee, you might use emotional intelligence to foster better collaboration on team projects, discuss challenges, and listen to different perspectives.

Emotional intelligence is also important across professions. For example, you may use emotional intelligence in careers such as:

• Human resources professionals: Emotional intelligence can help you better understand employee needs and concerns, resolve conflicts, and create a more supportive work environment. 

• Customer service representatives: Customer service representatives use emotional intelligence to establish better connections with clients and customers by empathizing with their needs, concerns, and emotions. 

• Teachers: Teachers use emotional intelligence in the classroom to understand students' needs, identify emotional barriers to learning, and create a supportive learning environment.

• Health care professionals: As a health care professional, you can use emotional intelligence to discuss delicate topics with patients empathetically, understand the perspective of your patients and their families, and foster stronger patient-provider relationships.

Workplace benefits of emotional intelligence

Building emotional intelligence can improve relationships, reduce stress, manage change, and increase one's overall quality of life. While EQ can lead to significant improvements in one's personal life, it can also have a big impact on one's professional experience.

A few benefits you may gain from higher levels of emotional intelligence in the workplace include:

• Improved communication: You can express your emotions clearly and constructively when you have high emotional intelligence. You can also understand what others are feeling, which leads to more effective communication and teamwork in the office. For example, you might alter your communication style to be more compassionate if a coworker seems to be having a bad day.

• Improved leadership: Emotional intelligence can help you better understand the emotions of your team members and employees and encourage open and empathetic communication. For example, if a disagreement occurs between people on your team, you would be able to listen to the perspectives of each side and help facilitate compassionate understanding and resolution.

• Increased resiliency: High levels of emotional intelligence can help you deal with change and process unpleasant emotions. Coping with stress can lead to improved performance in your professional tasks.

• Better decision-making: By growing your emotional intelligence, you can empathize with the emotions of your colleagues and predict how your decisions may affect others. This can help you make choices that encourage a healthy work environment while maintaining productivity.

4 ways to strengthen your emotional intelligence

Building or further developing emotional intelligence takes time and regular, intentional effort. Let's review four ways you can strengthen your emotional intelligence.

1. Practice active listening.

At its core, active listening is really about cultivating attention. It means really hearing what someone is sharing with you rather than planning your response. In team meetings and more personal exchanges, try to focus fully on what others are saying. If you notice your attention drifting, bring it back to the person speaking. Attention is a muscle and with practice you can strengthen yours to stay focused.

You can also practice active listening by asking clarifying questions and reflecting back what you've heard through body language, such as nodding.

2. Develop self-awareness.

If attention to others is the external component of emotional intelligence, then self-awareness is its internal counterpart. Spend time throughout the workday reflecting on your emotions. Notice if your mood shifts and you become agitated or, conversely, really excited and energized and how that affects your work or interactions. Should you ever have an emotional reaction at work, take responsibility for it and seek feedback to improve next time.

3. Exercise empathy.

Empathy is about understanding someone else's perspective. As you navigate your workday and interact with coworkers or clients, try to think about projects or situations from their point of view and any pressures they may be facing. It's also important to acknowledge your colleagues' feelings, even if you disagree about a point.

4. Manage work relationships with care.

There may be times when disagreements arise at work. How you manage that conflict is a sign of emotional intelligence and can be a useful opportunity to strengthen your abilities in this area. Address conflicts directly but diplomatically by providing constructive feedback and taking ownership over any part you played. Look for ways to compromise.

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