What are the benefits of becoming more emotionally intelligent? What do you stand to gain? What do others stand to gain?
Emotional and social intelligence break open the barriers to a variety of different skills and benefits. These benefits can include:
Increased understanding of yourself
Increased understanding of others
Improved communication skills
Improved relationships, both personally and professionally
Improved confidence
Improved performance
Improved decision making
Reduced conflict opportunities
Promotes personal development
Improved leadership skills
Promotes Psychological Wellbeing
Improved motivation
Improved goal attainment
Reduced stress
Raised resilience
Enhanced empathy
Improved perspective-taking skills
Improved conflict resolution skills
Enhanced emotional management skills
Supports the process for managing change
Due to less stress and conflict, it can also support a healthier sleep pattern
One important aspect of becoming more emotionally and socially intelligent is the ability to be able to build up a rapport with others. A rapport is an entrance to all other skills as it involves a level of trust, familiarity, and likeability. It is not necessarily easily built and can be met with resistance from others. However, once you have a rapport you have access to a future relationship on which to build.
Once rapport is established you will become more familiar with the other person. Once you are more familiar you will be more likely aware of when their reactions change. This will give you a better gauge of how the other person feels. It also promotes trust to be able to discuss how they feel more openly. Such understanding also provides you with the ability to exercise your skill of perspective-taking or seeing it from their side. This involves seeing whatever the situation may be from their point of view.
If you are able to take on another person’s perspective this is invaluable in skills such as conflict resolution, improving relationships, and communicating more deeply and assertively. All of these skills are beneficial in both personal and professional environments.
Assertive communication is preferable to other forms of communication as you are able to confidently, calmly, and constructively assert your opinion, emotion, and thoughts. It is the only way to communicate high-intensity emotions without necessarily causing offence to the other party. Of course, no one wants to hear that you are experiencing intense emotions and it can only be assertively communicated when in a calmer state, which may require taking a break to calm down before communicating.
Whilst higher levels of emotional intelligence reduce the chances of conflict, conflict will likely still present at some point. Such is the nature of humanity. In order to resolve conflict effectively it is important to be able to understand where each party in the conflict is coming from. This is where perspective-taking comes in. It does not necessarily mean you have to agree with the other person’s perspective, but just understand what their perspective is. This then opens up the possibility to be able to assert your own opinion without causing offence. A method to do this can require expressing empathy for the other party. Simply expressing that you understand what they are thinking and how they are feeling validates their own perception. This can lead to peaceful negotiation. One where each party involved in the conflict can confidently assert what they want from the negotiation. A successful negotiation will likely mean that neither party will get exactly what they wanted initially, but rather a compromise is reached which will benefit each party in some way.
If anyone wants any support with developing their emotional intelligence please message me directly or book a Free Mindset Meeting here: Home | Chloe Mepham BSc Certified Life Coach.