Emotional Intelligence in Relation to Business

Emotional intelligence is composed of two competences, personal and social. Having personal competence means one is self aware and understands their emotions as well as strengths and weaknesses. Being self aware is not only realizing how you feel but why and how it affects other people. Personal competence also encompasses self management which is the effectively managing ones feelings. Managing one's feelings involves controlling emotions, adapting behavior to adverse situations, being truthful, and striving to improve (Lubit, 2004).

Relationship management is the ability to effectively manage how others think and feel. One must first be socially aware of other's behavior and emotions. This involves having empathy to others and appreciation of their feelings and opinions. One can use their understanding of other's thoughts to influence their actions and opinions and develop the skills needed to work well together (Lubit, 2004). Conflict resolution and gaining cooperation are two results of effective relationship management. Part of conflict resolution is understanding where the emotions and opinions come from. Once one has found the drivers to behavior they can change the influences or environment which produces the stimulus to behavior (Lubit, 2004).

Emotional intelligence is the intelligence you have of yourself and others. It is important to learn how to gain it and improve it. Having emotional intelligence will help you handle difficult people and turn complex situations into situations with paths of open communication. This insight will help you avoid vulnerability and difficult situations. It should be used as a preventative measure (Lubit, 2004).

Emotional intelligence is a commodity since everyone has varying levels of it. People are not all as understanding of others or their own feelings. This is why there are methods that help develop emotional intelligence. There are four main methods to improving self awareness and self management. These methods include the following: 1) acknowledgment of your reactions to situations, 2) knowing why you react a certain way, 3) creating alternative reactions to negative responses, and 4) handling any stress from situations. Improving Social awareness and management can be handled in a similar way. One to key to learning social reactions without being affected is to observe from afar (Lubit, 2004). Social Awareness can allow one to identify how someone feels from nonverbal clues (Goleman, 2010).

One can follow all the steps to improving their ability to have emotional intelligence but some may be more apt to fall into habitual assumptions (Lubit, 2004). One has to know their own biases and learn to observe people and their reactions in an un-biased light. This may be hard for some and this is when group observance can be beneficial to learn from how other's interpret the same reactions. Another way to remove biases or other obstacles to learning is to consult a therapist to know where your biases lie (Lubit, 2004).

There are steps involved in breaking down ones current attitudes and degree of social awareness. Old attitudes, skills and awareness produce a certain result (Lubit, 2004). Introducing new self awareness skills produce new results. Once one learns how to adequately interpret their own feelings they can dispose of old attitudes that yield negative results (6Seconds, 2010). The Six Second model of emotional intelligence in action describes the three steps to evolving emotional intelligence. The first step is knowing yourself and knowing how you think and react. This is called increasing self-awareness with acknowledgment of behavioral patterns. The second step is to choose yourself. This step involves managing your feelings by intentionally directing thoughts and reactions. Finally, give yourself purpose. This step directs one to align choices with a larger purpose. The power is in one's conscious control over erratic emotions (6Seconds, 2010).

My insights profile brought to my attention some strengths and weaknesses. I can compare some of my behavioral traits to the competencies required for effectively managing emotional intelligence. One of my strengths is having compassion for others. I am very emotionally connected to my own feelings and am able to be empathetic to how others are feeling. This can be strength because I know how to be very aware of my feelings and how to control them. I can influence others by knowing what their soft spots are. One of my weaknesses is impatience. So in my drive to show empathy I may not sit for too long to listen to someone's story. I am also bad at making rushed decisions so I may not be able to decide how to help the person.

One of my strengths is the ability to work with many different types of people. This attribute can be associated with social awareness. My ability to understand why people react the way they do allows me to use my knowledge of individual reactions to mold my approach to the individual. Although I have the ability to adjust my approach to people I don't always know how to. In this regards, my social awareness is high but there is still room for improvement in social management.

Managers will continually learn emotional intelligence. People are complex and therefore not every facet of the human behavior can be learned all at once or even at all. Effective managers will learn to use the personal awareness to better understand others. Each reaction will be studied and analyzed to determine the best way to interact with people to attain a desirable result (Lubit, 2004).

References

Emotional Intelligence Training . Retrieved on February 2, 2010 from the 6Seconds Website at:

http://www.6seconds.org/business/training.php

Goleman, D. (2010). Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved on February 2, 2010 from the Daniel

Goleman Website at: http://www.danielgoleman.info/topics/emotional-intelligence/

Lubit, R. (2004). The Tyranny of Toxic Managers: Applying Emotional Intelligence to Deal With

Difficult Personalities. In Osland, J.S., Kolb, D.A., & Rubin, I.M. (2007).The Organizational

Behavior Reader. (8th ed.)(pp.64-77). Prentice Hall.