Emotional intelligence – valuable skill to create a harmonious workplace

By Kavitha Kesavan (Content Management Analyst)

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to be smart with emotions as it plays an essential part in fostering positive working relationships in an organization. IQ will get an employee hired, but EI is the ability to interact effectively while managing their own emotions and others’ emotions that will help someone move up the career ladder and determine success in life.  Individuals communicate better, reduce their anxiety and stress, avoid conflicts, improve relationships, empathize with others, and effectively overcome life’s challenges with high level of EI.

An interesting question and answer by Daniel Goleman is extracted from http://www.danielgoleman.info/social-skills-and-eq on social skills.

Q: Having good social skills is another component of EQ, but does that mean people who are shy or introverted don’t have as high an EQ? Again, how can one improve social skills?
Social competence takes many forms – it’s more than just being chatty. These abilities range from being able to tune into another person’s feelings and understand how they think about things, to being a great collaborator and team player, to expertise at negotiation. All these skills are learned in life. We can improve on any of them we care about, but it takes time, effort, and perseverance. It helps to have a model, someone who embodies the skill we want to improve. But we also need to practice whenever a naturally occurring opportunity arises – and it may be listening to a teenager, not just a moment at work.

Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the best-selling book Emotional Intelligence, established the importance of EI to business leadership and defined five main qualities that make up EI.

Self-awareness 

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one’s own emotions and moods and know how this can impact ourselves, others, and our environment. Strong self-awareness means having a clear understanding of each own’s strengths and weakness and operating with humility and kindness.

Employees with low level of EI often demonstrate direct their mood swings to certain colleagues and employees with high level of EI will be able to understand their colleagues’ emotions and will be able to accept and accommodate accordingly. This may cause conflict and uneasiness in a workplace if the employees with low EI are not willing to seek ways to change their habits as it is difficult to work with such colleagues. Speaking out with a trusted people who will be able to help the employees and attending motivational courses will be to assist employees who are keen in the journey of creating a high EI workplace.

Self-regulation

Daniel Goleman said, “When emotions are running high, they certainly cannot be ignored – but they can be carefully managed. This is called self-regulation, and it’s the quality of EI that liberates us from living like hostages to our impulses.” Leaders demonstrating EI will keep their worst impulses and distressing emotions under control and remain stay calm and effective in the most challenging times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will be able to understand the stress that employees face on a daily basis in global, complex, and high-pressured work environments. An approachable leader with self-reflection will be able to retain talents at workplace as they will comfortable and motivated to work with an emotionally balanced leader and environment.

Motivation

Self-motivated people have a passion to work with extremely high standards for the quality and pursue goals with persistence. They are not solely motivated by money or titles, but find the motivation within themselves. A highly EI team will help improve productivity of the workplace tremendously as they have a personal drive to improve and achieve, committed to goals, take initiative to complete a task, and readiness to act on opportunities, and optimism and resilience.

Apart from self-motivation, EI also includes on how we motivate others in a team. People with positive energy and vibes often inspire others to be super motivated, especially during a challenging situation. This will help retaining good employees, and creating a sense of loyalty which means they are more likely to work harder for employers.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory is relevant in identifying factors essential for employee motivation. Usually a person beginning their career will be very concerned with physiological needs such as adequate wages and security needs to fulfill the basic need for food, water and shelter etc. Workplace hazards should be addressed and resolved immediately to ensure employee’s safety is guaranteed and they do not feel threatened.

Employees desire to work in an environment where they are accepted in the organization and have some interaction with others. Therefore, creating a workplace that harbors opportunities for participation and interaction with others to promote a sense of belongingness is encouraged.

The need for appreciation and respect is another important element for motivation.  A strong level of self-esteem can make you feel better and gives a boost to your confidence that can make you feel empowered and perhaps, even improve your relationships at workplace. Meaningful job title, job perks, awards, a nice office, business cards, workspace, etc. are also important to an employee’s esteem.

Self-actualized people seek fulfillment and change through individual development. Self-actualized employees have leadership traits and are always prepared for new enhancements and challenges in relation to their job and are prepared to move out of their comfort zone. Self-actualized people are humble, not disturbed by small matters and are able to accept their flaws for growth.

Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to feel compassion for others, put yourself in their shoes and have an understanding to help them in times of need. Offering a genuine response to people’s concerns and connecting with them will be able to retain talents at workplace. Allowing flexible working arrangements for employees that need to care for kids or elderly parents is an encouraged approach.

Employees are much more likely to work smoothly with a friendly face versus someone that’s cold or unapproachable. For instance, if a new co-worker is having trouble adhering to a particular workplace culture or policy, co-workers tend to assume that they are being negligent or otherwise aloof. However, chances are they require time to adapt to the new culture. Co-workers with high level of EI will give the new hire the benefit of the doubt, respect their way of getting adjusted to the new culture and make them feel comfortable in the workplace before passing judgment on their behavior in the office. Practicing patience with your co-workers is a key to demonstrate empathy.

Social skills

Social skills are the ability to interact with others that are considered as fundamental to human development (Odom et al. 1992).  Good relationships at workplace will help people to get along well with others and help to perform better at jobs as they will feel comfortable approaching their co-worker for a discussion. When you show respect for others by being polite and using good manners in the workplace, people will show respect for you. Active listening which means being fully engaged while listening to someone talk also represent a good social skill.

Gossiping is definitely NOT part of strong social skills even though gossipmongers tend to be “friendly” to get their message through to lower a colleague’s reputation in the eyes of other colleagues due to their jealousy or insecurity. Gossipmongers are indisputable cancer in the workplace.  Workplace gossip leads to attrition due to good employees leaving the company because of an unhealthy work environment. Gossiping tends to erode morale, hurt feelings and reputations, lowers productivity and creates divisiveness among employees as people take sides. A rule of thumb to identify gossips would be, “if you would not be saying that about me in my presence, then it should be avoided.” Warning or terminating a gossipmonger acts a deterrence to other employees to respect other co-workers and to keep the positive vibes ongoing.

A workplace with high EI culture encourages retention of employees, loyalty and improved work performance as a happy and healthy workplace environment is highly beneficial for employees’ productivity and profitability of organizations.

(Note: For further information on workplace ethics in our Asia Pacific Employment Law and Singapore Hands on Guide - HR Manager subscriptions, contact us at sg-sales@wolterskluwer.com (Singapore)).