Importance of Emotional Intelligence at the Workplace
Discuss about the Positive Psychology of Emotional Intelligence.
Every individual have different personalities and thus have different behaviour in different situations. Emotions are the very important part of the individual’s life. This is because it frames the personality of the person (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, 2013). The ability of the person to recognize and identify those emotions and portray them correctly in society is called as emotional intelligence. It also deals with the perception an individual made about the feeling of others. Making correct perception and understanding the feeling of other person is very important for maintaining the relationships. There are different characteristics of emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation, motivation and social skills.
Emotional intelligence not only helps in maintaining the personal relationships but also helps in balancing the career life of the person. This is because it is required by the professionals to have the ability to manage people by maintain the work as well as the relationships. As far as the workplaces are considered, it has been analysed that different employees have different strengths and weaknesses and thus have different way of working (Zeidner, Matthews and Roberts, 2004). Thus, a leader at the workplace has to manage such different personalities and make them work. This requires the leaders to have high emotional intelligence in their personality. Leaders with high level of emotional intelligence can have the capability to relate with their employees. This is because if the leaders can understand the feelings of the employees, the employees find it easy to interact with the leaders about their issues (Ciarrochi, Forgas and Mayer, 2001). This makes the work more effective as the employees can easily share their problems with the leaders. For managing different workers or a team, it is required by the leaders to understand the strength and weakness of every person along with himself. This is because understanding the strength and weaknesses enables him to take better decisions by delegating the work accordingly in the team. Respect is one of the aspect that can be earned and not being snatched from others (Brackett, Rivers and Salovey, 2011). The leaders have to show respect to their employees and their emotions so that the employee can respect the leaders. It is not only the professional and the workplace environment that affects the performance of the people but their emotional context also supports them to perform (Stein and Book, 2011). If any one of the employees in the organization is not emotionally strong and feels depressed in pressure of work, the leader has to understand the emotional side of the situation and take the decision. Being task oriented can provide better results for the leader or the team for short them but for long term success, it is required that the leaders should have emotional intelligence to deal with the employees (Ciarrochi and Mayer, 2013).
Requirement of Emotional Intelligence by Workers and Leaders
Requirement of high emotional intelligence for being a good leader is a well-known fact but the emotional intelligence can only work its level is high from the employee’s side as well. This is because; there is a two way communication between the employees and the leaders. If leaders have an understanding of emotions then workers should also have the same so that they can support the leaders in their decisions (Salovey, Mayer, Caruso and Yoo, 2008). It has been analysed that there are many benefits that can be achieved by the company and the team in order to have emotional intelligence amongst the personality of the people working at the workplace. It is not only the leaders who need to communicate with each other but even the workers have to be with each other in order to work from the task. Thus, the understanding between the workers is also very important for the organizations success. Having compassion for each other allow the people to have a connection. This connect make them comfortable with each other and thus increases their efficiency to perform together (O’Boyle, Humphrey, Pollack, Hawver and Story, 2011). There are situation where the leaders have to take some decisions with the agreement of the employees. If the leader takes the decision considering the emotional context than it may be possible that the decision seems biased for the employees.in that case, it is required that worker should also have the high level of emotional intelligence so that they can also have the understanding of other’s emotions (Law, Wong, Huang and Li, 2008). It has been observed that emotional intelligent people are self-motivated and optimistic in nature. They usually try to perform effectively without being depressed in the condition of work load. Optimistic nature of the people also enhances the positive environment at the workplace and thus affects all other employees there (Joseph and Newman, D.A., 2010).
Emotional intelligence is always portrayed as the positive aspect of the personality. But, the balanced view in this concept is very important. This is because excess of emotional intelligence in person can be taken advantage of by the others and also restricts the person to take better decisions (Farh, Seo and Tesluk, 2012). Most of the time, it has been identified that the individuals with high emotional intelligence has the ability to evaluate their one emotions as well as have the understanding of other’s emotions. However, at the same time it has been analysed that they can easily be manipulated. Other people can easily manipulate the individual with high emotional intelligence level and thus can alter their decisions which are not on pragmatic basis. Being practical is also very important for the organizations to complete their task or achieve the objective (Mittal and Sindhu, 2012). If the employees or the leaders only work at the cost of not compromising with the emotional aspect than it becomes very difficult for the team to achieve their gaols. This suggests that balance is the only effective element that needs to be maintained by the leaders and the workers. Being heavily emotions and not considering the work is also not acceptable by the organizations and being only task oriented can also affect the performance of the employees negatively (Antonakis, Ashkanasy and Dasborough, 2009).
Balanced View on Emotional Intelligence
According to my understanding, I used to define emotional intelligence as the capability to understanding the emotions of others. However, after researching about the topic I realized that it does not only about understand others emotion but it is also about the evaluating your own self and regulating your own emotions in different situations (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso, 2008). By this study, I have gained the knowledge of the importance of emotional intelligence at the work place, it has been identified that it is not only the leaders who have to keep high level of emotional intelligence but the workers should also play their part in having the emotional understanding (Côté, Lopes, Salovey and Miners, 2010). The efforts from both the sides can maintain the relationship as well as the working of the team. When the people work in teams, they have to feel the connection with each other and have to understand each other’s emotions if they want to perform effectively. This study helps me in learning about the various principles of emotional intelligence that are self-awareness, empathy, motivation, social skills and self-regulation. I can also use these principles in my life to have better emotional intelligence. During this study, I have also analysed my personality on the emotional context and realised that I can feel the emotions of other person but not have the capability to self-regulate my emotions at times. This is because the emotional part of my personality becomes dominant and makes it difficult for me to supress my emotions in front of others. This suggests that I am emotional but does not have the capability to handle my emotions at times and have low emotional intelligence. As far as social skills are considered, I have realized that I am a social person and have the ability to interact with people. This suggests that I just need to learn how to regulate my feelings in ore to increase my level of emotional intelligence. The essay that I have written speaks about the importance of emotional intelligence to workers as well as leaders. This is because both of them have two way communications with each other and everyone has to align their thoughts with each other in the team to work efficiently (Sadri, 2012). The learning from this assignment will definitely helps in my future when I will become a part of an organisation or works with the team leader. I need to brush up some of my skills and I believe that I will definitely implement the things I have learnt in real life as well. This is because; it only helps me in my future career and personal life to bring balance in the emotional and the practical views of may personality. As I have understood that balancing is the most important factor to maintain emotional intelligence in the personality.
References:
Antonakis, J., Ashkanasy, N.M. and Dasborough, M.T., 2009. Does leadership need emotional intelligence?. The leadership quarterly, 20(2), pp.247-261.
https://www.vizenllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/EI-DoesLeadershipNeedEmotionalIntelligence.pdf
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Ciarrochi, J. and Mayer, J.D., 2013. Applying emotional intelligence: A practitioner’s guide. Psychology Press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qRVdAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Ciarrochi,+J.+and+Mayer,+J.D.,+2013.+Applying+emotional+intelligence:+A+practitioner%27s+guide.+Psychology+Press.&ots=Eek41ye_Jr&sig=TUMHbRE-Od5_YrvhUa6n0cSIons#v=onepage&q=Ciarrochi%2C%20J.%20and%20Mayer%2C%20J.D.%2C%202013.%20Applying%20emotional%20intelligence%3A%20A%20practitioner’s%20guide.%20Psychology%20Press.&f=false
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Joseph, D.L. and Newman, D.A., 2010. Emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/Documents/Joseph-Newman-2010.pdf
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