Whether you’re looking to build your own emotional intelligence, encourage its development in your children or students, or trying to boost your team’s or organization’s EQ, there are many activities, tools, and resources you can use.
Tips for Enhancing Your Own Emotional Intelligence
If your goal is to boost your own emotional intelligence or help your clients boost their emotional intelligence (e.g., any EI work on an individual level), keep these seven tips in mind:
• Reflect on your own emotions;
• Ask others for perspective;
• Be observant (of your own emotions);
• Use “the pause” (e.g., taking a moment to think before speaking);
• Explore the “why” (bridge the gap by taking someone else’s perspective);
• When criticized, don’t take offense. Instead, ask: What can I learn?
• Practice, practice, practice (Bariso, 2016).
• Learn more about these important tips.
Tips for Enhancing the Emotional Intelligence of Teams
If you’re looking to enhance your team’s emotional intelligence, keep these 7 tips in mind:
• Have a ring leader;
• Identify team members’ strengths and weaknesses;
• Spark passion;
• Build team norms;
• Develop creative ways to manage stress;
• Allow team members to have a voice;
• Encourage employees to work and play together (Rampton, n.d.).
• Read more about how to implement these tips.
EQ experts Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff tell us that three factors are absolutely essential to the success of a workgroup:
• Trust among members;
• A sense of group identity;
• A sense of group efficacy (2001).
If it sounds to you like these three factors are strongly associated with emotional intelligence, you’re right! You can’t have an emotionally intelligent team with emotionally intelligent members, but it takes more than that—you need emotionally intelligent norms and values, the right team atmosphere, and willingness to build team EQ.
To do that, you’ll need:
• Understanding and regulation of emotions at the individual level;
• Understanding and managing of emotions at the group level;
• Awareness of and willingness to work with emotions outside the group.
Make sure to keep these three levels in mind as you work on building your emotionally intelligent team; remember that it’s not all about the individuals on the team, but about how they interact with each other and with those outside the group (Druskat & Wolff, 2001).
Source: https://positivepsychology.com/emotional-intelligence-exercises/