There is often conversation about the need for emotional intelligence (EI) at work.
Yet, there is little conversation around what this really means.
We often perceive that you “have it” or you don’t.
5 Components of Emotional Intelligence
There are five components of emotional intelligence:
Self-awareness: Knowing your emotional strengths, weaknesses, and connecting with feelings.
Self-management: Knowing how to handle your feelings and control impulses.
Motivation: Ability to set goals and take steps to meet them.
Social awareness(empathy): Ability to read and understand the body language & emotions of others.
Social skills: Ability to develop good relationships with others and resolve conflicts.
The five have a combination of internal and external qualities.
My Perspective
I believe that we often think emotional intelligence is just empathy and social skills.
Understanding all five dimensions is the first step to truly developing our EI.
From there, individuals and organizations can focus on training and development.
While we may be naturally skilled in some of these areas, others can be developed.
The one on the list that really caught my attention was motivation.
I think there are two dimensions there – motivating ourselves and motivating others.
This is something I think could be better understood and leveraged at work.
What motivates one person may not be a motivator for someone else.
Your Turn
Were you aware of the five dimensions of emotional intelligence?
Are there some that you believe you need training and development?
If you could only focus on one for the next several months, which one would it be?