Dear Diary
Why emotional intelligence skills build better comms pros
2 minutes read
In your feels? Perfecting your people skills through emotional intelligence makes for more effective communicators.
Ask anyone who’s ever reached for a packet of Tim Tams to eat their feelings – how we feel impacts our decisions, behaviour and performance, big-time.
While this influence can be both conscious and unconscious (where did all the Tim Tams go?), studies show that 85 per cent of the time we’re unaware of how our emotions affect us and others in productive and unproductive ways.
For communications professionals, understanding and managing your moods can avoid colleagues and clients being caught up in your emotional wake.
Emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) is the ability to identify, express and control emotions and their impact on behaviour, and just like IQ, it varies from person to person.
In the workplace, negative emotions can narrow our thinking, cause defensive reactions, make us risk-averse and closed to opportunities and reduce overall performance.
On the flipside, positive emotions lead to creative problem solving and in-depth thinking, a willingness to engage, take more risks and be open to new ideas.
Your ability to recognise feelings in yourself and others allows for better self-expression and builds empathy by understanding different communication styles and what people need.
Knowing your communication style and how your co-workers and clients would prefer to receive communication will allow you to interact more effectively and create stronger working relationships.
It’s a life skill that not only helps people kick goals in the workplace, it also flows into relationships and other objectives in life.
Seems like a no-brainer, right?
Often it’s the simplest things that are overlooked in everyday interactions, such as listening when someone is speaking, including others in decision-making, or asking co-workers for their perspectives on a shared project.
An environment where people are able to contribute freely and feel their work and ideas are acknowledged promotes a better workplace culture, which in turn translates into effective communication, a more motivated team and a less stressful office.
And that’s a win-win in any language.