We have covered the importance of emotional intelligence on this channel before, check out that video here: https://youtu.be/kqIjcF3IjjY
So today, we are going to talk about how your cultivate your emotional intelligence. It starts with a focus on improving the 5 pillars of Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy & Social Skills.
Self-awareness is the foundation of being able to improve your EQ. If you aren’t aware of your words, tone, body language and facial expressions, it’s very difficult to improve. You can improve self-awareness with things like yoga, meditation, mindfulness practices and getting candid feedback about your presence from friends, colleagues and leaders.
From there you move into self-regulation. Once you are aware of what you are doing, then you need to get to work on learning how to regulate yourself. You can do that by preparing more for meetings/speeches, holding emotional responses until after the heat of the conversation and generally just learning to stay level (mediation and mindfulness help a ton here).
The next pillar is motivation. Make sure you understand why you are doing something and what is motivating you. If you aren’t motivated to lead people and care for them, then you might not be a leader…and that’s ok!
Empathy is one of the most important pillars in my opinion. Being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes really differentiates you as a leader. It allows you to take a step back and evaluate how others might feel.
Lastly, social skills are important to have high EQ. To be able to have solid conversations, giving praise, handing conflict…doing those things effectively all require a foundation of solid social skills.
I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
Links to past videos that support the 5 pillars:
#26 Your Words Matter: https://youtu.be/P27sKp2XUMo
#5 Difficult Conversations: https://youtu.be/cF9cXP-XwrA
#6 Radical Candor: https://youtu.be/4PoPcpIyrJk
#80 Leveraging Mindfulness: https://youtu.be/lnp1TfIbke0
