Emotional health is the ability to recognise, express and manage your feelings in a healthy and productive way – and in order to do this, you need good emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is often seen as a defining factor in those who are professionally and socially successful. It’s a skill set that allows you to navigate social situations and conflicts.

Cultivating strong emotional intelligence allows you to practice better empathy, reasoning, communication skills and stress management. This contributes to living a happier, healthier and more balanced life overall.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (or EQ) can be defined as the ability to recognise and manage your own emotions, and the emotions of others.

Psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman pioneered and popularised the concept of emotional intelligence in the 1990s. Goleman believes that emotional intelligence is an important indicator of outstanding performance and leadership.

The Four Pillars of Emotional Intelligence

1. Self Awareness:

• The ability to know yourself and understand your feelings.
• An accurate understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses.
• A sense of self-confidence and willingness to put yourself forward.

2. Self Management:

• Controlling and expressing your feelings in an appropriate way.
• Being able to work towards your goals.
• Motivating yourself and staying motivated despite setbacks.
• Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness.
• Adapting to change as necessary.
• An overall positive outlook.

3. Social Awareness:

• Empathy, the ability to connect with others, and understand and acknowledge others’ emotions.
• Helpfulness, contributing to group efforts, good listening skills.
• The ability to explain yourself well, and awareness of how you are being understood.

4. Relationship Management:

• The ability to act as a leader, role model or mentor.
• Motivating others and articulating thoughts in a clear, persuasive way.
• Managing conflict and settling disputes, negotiating and improving relationships.
• Recognising and supporting the need for change.
• Helping others to develop.
• Effective teamwork and collaboration.

The first two pillars are focused on how you manage yourself (personal competence), and the last two pillars describe how you relate to other people (social competence).

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Your ability to manage your emotions is a big defining factor in how others perceive you, and has a major impact on your professional and personal relationships. Those with better emotional intelligence are often perceived as more mature, reasonable and pleasant to deal with.

By working to improve your EQ skills, you can strengthen the relationships with others in all areas of your life.

 

Sources:

Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/basics/emotional-intelligence

Daniel Goleman. Retrieved from: http://www.danielgoleman.info/topics/emotional-intelligence/

The 4 Pillars of Emotional Intelligence and Why they Matter: http://p4s.pt/en/the-4-pillars-of-emotional-intelligence-and-why-they-matter/

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence: https://positivepsychology.com/importance-of-emotional-intelligence/