How EQ helps your business?

Research shows that emotional intelligence Is the key factor that sets high-performing individuals and achievers from the rest of the crowd.   In this blog, I will share with you what I have learned from the recent training I went through from Chartered Organization Psychologist.  I will be sharing the four factors that contribute to a higher emotional intelligence which will help in growing your business. 

When you develop your emotional intelligence it will help you how to grow your business, interact with your team, and simply be able to thrive with the community you live which will help you build a stronger and more collaborative relationship. 

So if you want to be the next achievers in your career and if you want to grow your business to the next level, emotional intelligence is the next concept you need to learn.  

A happy vendor smiles as he starts his business with a huge EQ. The photo taken from pixabay.

Understanding EQ

Understanding and developing your emotional intelligence is essential if you want to successfully progress in your career or grow your business.  Not only will you reap the rewards personally but enhancing your performance generally.  You will also foster strong relationships with others, helping you to collectively achieve more.  When it comes to understanding emotional intelligence, there are three key things you need to know.

 

Firstly, what do we mean by emotional intelligence, and how we can define it.   Secondly, how your emotional intelligence fits with other parts of your psychological structure.  And finally, why it's important to develop your emotional intelligence. Let's start at the beginning. What exactly do we mean by emotional intelligence? Well, when we talk about emotional intelligence, we're really focusing on two areas, understanding and expressing our emotions, and being empathetic when communicating with others. The second thing you need to know is emotional intelligence is part of our psychological makeup, along with our personalities and IQ, which is a measure of general intelligence. These three elements make us who we are and they determine how we interact with others. We all use each of these three elements to varying degrees and research has shown personality and IQ don't predict emotional intelligence. In fact, all three elements operate independently.   Interacting together to help our sole problems and make decisions. Whatever personality type you are or whatever your IQ score, you have the ability to be high on the emotional intelligence scale. Why this is so interesting is because generally speaking, personality and IQ are fairly fixed. They don't move a great deal throughout your adult life. This is not the case with emotional intelligence, however. 

Moreover,  they mentioned that everyone has the ability to develop and enhance their emotional intelligence, which means you can take control of how you experience and express your emotions and you can control how empathetic you are with others. It's just a case of learning and practicing the skills. The third point I'll cover is why it's so important to focus on developing your emotional intelligence. It's an area of your psyche that you have control of. You can enhance and grow your emotional intelligence, which will have a direct impact on your performance and personal achievements, and on the relationships you build. 

Emotional intelligence is sometimes known as EQ, which stands for emotional quotient. To help explain why we use the terminology EQ, consider the phrase IQ, which is the measure of general intelligence. Quite simply, EQ is the emotional version of general intelligence.  Whereas IQ measures a person's reasoning ability and how they use information and logic to answer questions, the measurements of emotional intelligence is completely different. 

Measuring emotional intelligence focuses on four criteria. 

Firstly, being aware of emotions. 

Secondly, expressing emotions. 

Thirdly, controlling your emotions. 

And finally, handling relationships with others effectively. 

There are four areas of emotional intelligence; self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship development. What you'll notice is the first two parts look inwards, focusing on yourself, firstly understanding your emotions and then learning to manage them. The second two parts are outward-facing, being aware of social situations, and then managing and developing relationships. Take a moment to think about your emotional intelligence. How have you used your emotional intelligence in a work situation? Are there areas you could improve? We'll dive into this later, but for now, I'd like you to start considering how you think about and react to situations and the changes you'd like to see.

What are the Triggers and hijacks of Emotional Quotient?

Picture the scene, you're at work and you're about to head into an important meeting. A contract you desperately need to get signed has disappeared from your desk. The stakes are high, you need this document to secure an important deal. Immediately, you can feel the anger rise and your heart race increases, and you can't help but be vocal about your frustration. You blame your boss. She's always giving you deadlines which just aren't manageable. 

Then you blame the cleaners, they must have thrown the contract out. Your lack of patience and stress, coupled with your disdain of your boss, acts as a trigger, causing an unfavorable reaction. So, you storm into the meeting and declare the deadline's been too tight as usual, you don't have support to effectively do your job, and the cleaners should be held accountable. You've experienced a cognitive hijack. 

The way you think and process information has caused an irrational response. The trigger set you off, the emotion took over, and your behavioral response was hijacked, all creating a scenario that is less than ideal. Our thoughts and emotions are so powerful. They can dictate how we experience the world around us and how we feel about situations. This thinking process can affect how we behave, how we interact with others, the choices, and decisions we make, and how we perform at work. This cognitive process isn't always the slick, well-oiled machine we need it to be to get the most out of a situation. 

If you imagine all of the stimulants around us at any given point, our brains need to process information quickly. You probably also have 100 thoughts going on in your head. You may be wondering what I'm talking about, you might be thinking about lunch or something you need to do at home. The point is your brain is processing all of that information at once, and it may not seem like a lot because you're used to doing this unconsciously, but your brain is working. So, we rely on cognitive shortcuts which help us to focus on the important information and make quick decisions. 

This protects you from feeling overwhelmed and from finding even the most simple of decisions a crippling challenge. But sometimes, our automatic information processing gets it wrong, or it gets a bit lazy. In a coaching capacity, when we analyze behaviors, we often find the same triggers hijack our thinking and throw us off course again and again. Your triggers are events, or things that happen that cause you to feel and think in a way that isn't helpful, in a way that isn't going to achieve the best outcome from a situation. It may be that you fly off the handle, or you retreat into yourself, or you become defiant or stressed. 

Whatever it is for you, then chances are you know that your response won't lead to the best outcome for you. So, think about the challenges you've faced over the last six months. Are there emotions you've experienced, or thoughts you've had about a situation that shows up again and again? Are there triggers that set off an emotional response for you? You're looking for themes here and you're being a detective, analyzing your past evidence. Now, take it a step further and consider whether there are emotions that hijack the way you respond to situations.

Now that you learned about Emotional Quotient in a more detailed way, you will be able to assess your response to situations and you will be able to do something about it.  Here is the summary of this lesson I learned.   The more you practice being able to make decisions without making any emotionally disturbed, you are growing your EQ.  Whether you make small or big decisions for your business the point of the matter is, it doesn't make you less of who you are.  So just chill and enjoy the process.  

Hi, my name is Jack Marbida.  I am a financial advisor, community pastor, and father of 2 kids, and I am devoted to helping people reach success in life. 

You can reach me through my social media accounts: 

https://www.facebook.com/PapaJackph

https://www.instagram.com/jackmarbida/