Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is linked to improved performance.  Those that have a higher EQ tend to outperform those that have lower EQ.

So then, leaders should continually be looking at how to increase their EQ.

More often than not, emotions drive you to action. Yet, we sometimes put emotions behind everything else, thinking that to succeed and to make the best and most logical decisions, emotions need to take a back seat.

But emotions are inevitable, and correctly interpreted, can be excellent feedback. There is a right way to address and manage them so they will help you achieve better outcomes.  

The benefit of EQ is the ability to recognize and understand emotions within yourself and other people and to use this awareness to guide your behavior and actions to improve your relationship with others.  

Here are helpful steps to develop and improve your Emotional Intelligence.

Practice Mindfulness

Emotional Intelligence exists within yourself. You can become more self-aware by beginning to practice mindfulness. Becoming self-aware makes it much easier to be aware and mindful of other’s feelings and emotions. To practice mindfulness, try meditation, yoga, or keep a journal to record your daily thoughts and feelings.

Everything you log in your journal will eventually make more sense to you and give you a deeper awareness of your own emotions, and how these emotions affect and are affected by, the events of your life.

Be Positive - See The ‘Glass Half-Full’

Positive people are better able to fight adversity and enhance their self-growth. To improve EQ, you need to learn to appreciate small successes, which will help to motivate you towards making even more progress. Ultimately, being positive enables you to deal with situations more effectively, with less emotional damage to yourself or others.

Don’t Ignore Negative Emotions

Acknowledge negative emotions and the negative situations that you want to address. Don’t keep them inside or to yourself. Sometimes you need to process negative feelings on your own first, but make sure to communicate it as soon as you’ve made sense of and understood your emotions. You need this to make some changes in life.

Identify potential triggers that lead you to certain feelings or reactions. Don’t deny yourself the chance to feel your emotions, even negative ones. Accepting and coping is a much healthier response than avoidance and denial. Thwarted emotions reappear through some other (often destructive) way, so they are still unhealthy. Be familiar enough with your triggers to know what to anticipate when you’re next caught up in a similar situation.

Set Personal Goals

How do you motivate yourself? The easiest way to do that is to set some goals. Set personal goals to achieve for yourself, and make sure they are realistic enough to motivate you constantly to work towards them. Sometimes people set goals with no path to achieving them, and this makes them feel overwhelmed and stressed, rather than inspired and motivated. When setting big goals, cut them into small short-term goals that you can regularly achieve until you get closer to the big achievement.

Staying realistic and workable when you’ve set big goals grounds you and motivates you to continually work toward achieving something you have the power to make happen. When you’ve finally achieved what you’ve set out to do, this boosts your self-confidence and even more so, your ability to progress and make things happen.

Eat A Healthy, Balanced Diet

Eating well might be basic, but it is still key to your emotional health. Try to maintain a balanced diet, along with taking care of your whole wellbeing.  A good diet will keep you in the best state physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Meet Like-Minded People

Lastly, network with other people. A great way to deepen your interest in something and to meet like-minded people like yourself is through networking.

Meeting new people and sharing your interests with others improves your social awareness and social skills. These are major aspects of well-developed Emotional Intelligence.

Since physical networking is not wise with the pandemic, think of ways you can network virtually. Reach out to people on social media and then connect virtually using a platform like Zoom or GoToMeeting.

Developing your EQ is a lifelong process.  You never arrive in this journey. Wherever you are on your EQ journey, using the tips above can take your EQ to the next level.