Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Trinity Employment Specialists specializes in recruiting top talent for Banks, Accounting firms and Medical professionals throughout Tulsa. One of the main problems that we see with people being able to maintain a job is a lack of emotional intelligence. What is emotional intelligence you may ask: Emotional intelligence (EI) (Accoding to Wikipedia is the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. The problem is that most people that suffer from a lack of emotional intelligence are usually the ones that have no idea that there is a problem. I am sure that you have seen this before in either a co-worker or a supervisor. The scenario goes like this: (we will call this person Charlie) Charlie just bull-dozes his way through any project and verbally assaults anyone in his way. He thinks that he is a good leader and team player, but when you talk with those on his team, they don’t see that at all. They are usually just trying to stay out of Charlie’s way just to keep the peace. However, when someone on the team finally has the courage to approach Charlie with this problem, Charlie just has no idea and seems shocked that anyone thinks this. Does this sound familiar? This is a common occurrence of someone who has a low emotional intelligence and just has no idea. So, what if you are the person on your team with a low emotional intelligence? Here are some things that you can do to make sure that you check yourself. 1. Ask others for feedback: There is probably someone you have a good working relationship with that you could ask and trust that they would give you honest feedback. Helpful hint here: If you ask, do not allow yourself to get defensive immediately. Commit to hearing them out and trying to understand and own what they are telling you. 2. Give yourself a minute to think: When you have an in-the-moment situation that you feel needs a decision immediately, take time to think or ask a trusted colleague their opinion and tell them the decision that you are intending to make and ask what they think about it. You may decide to move forward, but I have found when I ask someone I truly trust that they give me good feedback to consider before moving forward. Even when I do go ahead against their concern, I have had the opportunity to prepare for any objections that may be coming. Emotional intelligence is often learned disciplines. When interviewing anyone, we look sensitively at emotional intelligence and when we have someone talks confidently that they are able to move forward without any guidance and makes great decisions without mentioning working with his or her team members, it usually raises some big red flags. Yes, we all want great leaders on our teams, but having a leader that wants to either go-it-alone or wipe out everyone in their path to the meeting the goal can be a nightmare. My advice is to constantly work on your own personal emotional intelligence and to pay attention to how you affect those around you that are so important to the success of your goals.