Emotional intelligence (EI) is essential in all areas of life, but it is also essential for work. If you want to have benefits in your work, then you can start looking for strategies to improve your emotional intelligence. You can be an emotionally intelligent person in your job role, because EI can be learned. If you think you couldn’t have a good EI even if you wanted to … you’re actually wrong, with practice you can do it!

You can be aware of your emotions

One of the first steps to better emotional intelligence skills at work is to practice recognizing your own emotions. Self-awareness involves being aware of your own aspects, including your emotions and feelings. It is a fundamental component of EI. To recognize emotions and understand what is causing these feelings in you, you will have to be aware of your emotions. How can you get it? Follow these tips to improve self-awareness:

• • Pay attention to how you feel at a certain time during the day. How do these emotions influence how you respond? Do the things you feel have an impact on the decisions you make or how you interact with others? As you spend more time reflecting on these issues, you will find that you become much more aware of your own emotions and the role they play in your daily life

• • Take stock of your emotional strengths and weaknesses. How do you communicate with others? Are you impatient, angry, or upset often? How do you deal with feelings? Recognize your weaknesses so you can find ways to deal with these shortcomings.

• Don’t make decisions in intense emotional states. It is important to remember that emotions are temporary and pass quickly. Although a coworker may irritate you at a certain point, this is temporary. It is best to think before you react and remember that decisions you make on impulse due to intense emotions can be detrimental to you in the long run.

Practice self-regulation

Self-regulation is a critical part of emotional intelligence.  Knowing your emotions is an important first step, but you must also be able to handle the things you feel. People with good self-regulation are able to adapt well to changing situations. 

They know how to express their emotions appropriately rather than simply reacting impulsively at a certain point.  They also think about how their emotional expressions affect others. Ways to start improving your self-regulation skills in the workplace:

• • Find techniques for dealing with stress at work. Do activities of interest outside of work, such as physical exercise.

• • Stay calm when things get stressful at work. Accept that you can’t control everything.

• Take your time before making a decision. Strong emotions can cause you to make poor decisions. It is better to make decisions calmly in a rational and calm way. Take the time you need.

Improve your social skills

Soft skills are also highly valued in the workplace because they lead to better communication and overall company culture. Employees and leaders with strong soft skills can build rapport with their colleagues and communicate their ideas effectively. They can work as a team and also have leadership roles. If you want to strengthen your social skills , keep the following in mind:

• • Listen to what others have to say. It does not mean listening passively while others speak. Active listening involves showing attention, asking questions, and commenting. When you actively listen you are showing that you care about other people’s thoughts and that you want to achieve your goals.

• • Pay attention to non-verbal communication. Sometimes what we don’t say says much more than what we do say. The signals that people send through body language can tell you a lot about what they really think, even if it does not go according to what they tell you in words …

• • Improve your influence skills. Influencing others at work can bring you great success as you would have the ability to convince your team members to listen to your ideas and thus be able to scale your career much more effectively and quickly.

• Learn to handle conflict well. Run away from problems and troubled people. Keep in mind that conflicts are not always avoidable and when they do occur, you will have to know how to solve problems while minimizing tensions as much as possible. Conflict resolution skills are a must in this field.

Be an empathetic person

People who are emotionally intelligent are good at putting themselves in other people’s shoes and understanding how they feel. Empathy is recognizing how others feel and it also involves knowing how to respond to emotions . In the workplace, empathy allows you to understand different dynamics between colleagues or bosses. It also allows you to recognize who is in power and how they influence the behaviors, feelings, and interactions that arise from such relationships. If you want to work on your empathy :

• • Try to see things from other people’s point of view

• • Pay attention to how you respond to others

• • Understand that you don’t always have to be right

• • Respecting the opinion of others does not mean that you should agree

• • Show your feelings in an assertive way, without hurting others

• • Don’t let disagreements build into major conflicts

• • Analyze situations with other perspectives

• • Allow others to share their ideas without criticizing or judging

• Acknowledge the opinion of others even if you disagree

It is also very important that in all circumstances you try to maintain an open, optimistic attitude and with a smile on your face. Make it clear that you like what you do and that your work is not only a means to an end (money) for you. Show yourself and others how your work fills you, you like it and you enjoy doing what you do. In this way, others will also admire your way of acting in life and in your work life.