Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a necessary component of any successful workplace. People who operate with a high level of EI have more successful work relationships with colleagues and superiors, have greater work success and higher work satisfaction. Their ability to self-manage affords them a heightened self-awareness that is utilized to govern their actions – personally and in relation to others – which leads to reduced stress and maximized skills.

In the past when hiring new employees, Human Resource (HR) Managers have focused on the work output skill set of prospective hires or years of training and experience related to the position available. While those qualifications are important to performing work-related tasks, it is equally necessary that the person or persons joining the workplace are emotionally intelligent and mature self-managers.

Emotional Intelligence in the workplace promotes an environment in which employees exhibit an equal amount of concern for their interpersonal relationships as for their work duties. Those persons who are self-aware examine their thoughts, motives and behaviors to discover how others they work with will be affected. They approach their employment as more than simply completing projects and assignments, and consider more deeply how to assist in the achievement of group and task success. As emotionally intelligent individuals operate from a relational point-of-view, stronger bonds are built between themselves and their colleagues.

Emotionally intelligent people also have greater success in the workplace because they are efficient self-managers. They are able to effectively gage their possible work output, and complete tasks accordingly. They realize when assistance is needed from sources outside of themselves and are confident enough to secure those resources. They’ve also built sufficient relationships with others who may need to provide the resources or assist in completing a work project.

Consider how peaceful a work environment is that has emotionally mature employees who are working to help each other succeed while simultaneously meeting production goals. When positive work relationships exist and there is project success overall work satisfaction is naturally higher. Emotional intelligence – just as the employees who are skilled in it are – is an asset to the workplace.

Emotional Intelligence is a crucial skill that companies desire their employees to have, but have not always articulated this fact. As the relevance of EI becomes more apparent, obtaining employees who possess the skill of operating at a high level of emotional maturity will grow to be as important as academic qualifications.

Author Bio

Dorothy Spry is a career performance coach specialising in cognitive behavioural coaching. Dorothy runs a number of courses in the UK, USA and the UAE helping individuals and organisations increase their effectiveness.

Her website is Cognitive-Behavioural-Coaching.com