Emotional Intelligence at Workplace

Submitted By: Devank Gupta (A015)

While the qualities traditionally associated with leadership like intelligence, determination,
and vision- are required for success but they are insufficient. Truly effective leaders are
also distinguished by high degree of emotional intelligence - Daniel Goleman
In the backdrop of this statement, critically discuss the relevance of emotional
intelligence at workplace. (20 Marks)
Emotional intelligence is the quality that enables us to confront with patience, insight and
imagination the many problems that we face in our effective relationship with ourselves and
with other people. Emotional intelligence is a foundational skill and when you work on it
tends to reach out and affect many other behaviours that you might have otherwise worked at
on your own. Emotions are the primary driver of our behaviour. Our brain is hardwired such
that our emotional reaction to events is what motivates us to act so when we become more
emotionally intelligent we become better at a lot of things and become more assertive, better
at managing stress and time.
Every decision we make on a daily basis is based on emotions. We often feel choice A is
better than choice B, Therefore many times the choices we make are based on what our
emotions or what gut feelings are telling us. People need to have the self-awareness of their
own emotions as well as of origins to understand themselves better their motivations, fears,
limitations and strengths. It's also extremely important for people to be in touch with their
emotions especially when working in teams by keeping in mind not only their emotions but
also of others i.e. they must have empathy to imagine a problem or situation from another
person’s perspective and to stand in somebody else's shoes. People's emotions and concerns
are becoming of great significance today when teams are cross-cultural and businesses are
global.
When a person is emotionally unstable, he does not think about the way he reacts to things
and how it may affect the people around him. Emotional intelligence is very important in to
maintain a balance between professional and personal life. For example, an individual has
fought with his wife at home or there has been a death in his family, he will not be able to
work effectively thereby affecting his productivity and also hampers his ability to make
decisions. Similarly if an individual is not been appreciated enough for his work he will get
demotivated and thereby may remove his anger at home i.e. on the people who actually care
about him and who have no fault whatsoever.
There are various factors that distinguish a good leader from a great leader; one of them can
be attributed to emotional intelligence. A great leader empathizes to the needs of all its
stakeholders and therefore takes into consideration, the effects his decisions will have on
them and therefore responds accordingly. A great leader is able to deliver the appropriate
message to the appropriate people at the appropriate time and manner. A great leader turns
his weakness into strengths and thereby leveraging his emotions to benefit him instead of
hampering him whereas a good leader will only provide solution to weaknesses. A greater
leader is able to understand and identify the capabilities of the people around him and makes
them believe they are good at it and therefore can motivate them effectively; whereas a good
leader tells them what they are good at. A great leader has many followers and people inspire
to become like him whereas a good leader may deliver results and be respected by all for his
work but may not be liked by all.
People did not develop to be successful in modern day working environment conditions,
human comprehension, feelings and conduct advanced hunter seeker gatherer issues, for
example, how to chase scrounge, draw in a mate and politically work in a little innate society.
Psychologist Mark Van Bruntargues recommends that our human impulses have not
advanced with the goal that individuals can serenely work in an large and bureaucratic
structure. In our current working environments numerous representatives feel disappointed,
baffled and distanced. A key skill that can lead to both workplace effectiveness and
satisfaction is emotional intelligence. Author Dan Goldman suggests that there are five
emotional intelligence skills that are of great value in the workplace which are self-
awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
Self-awareness involves knowing one's strengths and weaknesses i.e. when we are self-
aware were able to accurately assess ourselves being open to positive criticism which is also
a mark of confidence and gives us the benefit of being able to learn and improve every day.
Self-awareness involves knowing our primary values which allow us to be consistent in our
activities and to be guided by higher ideologies which over time often lead to greater levels of
respect. Self-awareness involves knowing the impact that we have on others, for example a
self-aware person may have perceptions about why one's bosses are always angry thus
providing them with an opening to be a calming influence.
Self-regulation involves being able to control our instincts and moods. It is important to step
back and try to understand why others are getting angry rather than letting the feeling of fury
lead to a violent act. Someone who can regulate their mood is more likely to build and keep
good relationships in the work.
Motivation involves having a passion for work and a desire to raise the performance bar and
achieve results over and above expectations. When we're motivated, we have extra vigour
and we're able to accomplish more in the workplace.

Empathy involves understanding other's emotions. Empathy is associated with listening to

what others have to say and putting yourself in their shoes. Long-term working relationships
are strengthened by empathy. Managers and organizational leaders who demonstrate empathy
are also more successful in retaining pelleted employees. For example, the people who are
providing services with armed forces a given specially training in which they are made to go
through similar situational conditions like the soldiers so that they understand how the
soldiers would be feeling leading to effective and efficient delivery of services.
Social skills involve building a bond with people in order to move them in a desired
direction. People with social skills are able to find collective ground and build emotional
bonds with others. An individual who has social skills is able to effectively network through
building positive bonds with new and existing relations. Social skills are also connected with
being influential and therefore social skills are a key trait in being an effective.
Managers are required to have a high EI, because they are required to work with a wide
variety of people. He is the one who is responsible to get the work out of them. Managers
need to understand that actions speak louder than words. Managers with emotional
intelligence are able to understand the employees are human beings first and then employees.
Understanding the emotions of his employees helps him communicate messages better, faster
and also helps him to resolve matters effectively which therefore help them to hold on to
employees which lead to company loyalty and decreased employee absenteeism. When
managers see that certain employees are not able to cope up and are too stressed, being able
to understand them, can tell them to calm down or take a day off, regroup and join back
tomorrow with double the effort as sometimes leaving a person to be with himself of utmost
importance. Emotional intelligence helps you leverage your emotions to work in your favour
instead of working against you. Emotional intelligence allows us to anticipate and thereby
respond to people in an appropriate manner.
People with high emotional intelligence are able to assess emotional and psychological
state of others more easily, thereby making it easier to understand if a person is suffering
from anxiety, depression, trauma and many others. By identifying threats to employee’s
psychological state, professional’s help and support can be provided to help them recover.
Each and every employee in the organization has a different emotional quotient. Anyone can
increase their emotional quotient by working on it and therefore the organization will
function better if programs are conducted within the organization which evaluates emotional
intelligence and helps them learn to improve it.

Employees should not be promote only the basis of skills set and for how long they have been
working in the organization but also based on their emotional quotient as it is often said the
emotional intelligence is twice more important than technical knowledge. Maintaining
relationships are integral for a business to be successful which includes relationship not just
with clients but also other stakeholders like suppliers, employees etc. Our understanding of
emotional intelligence improves our relations with peers and also imbibes a deep sense of
personal fulfilment and professional success and therefore emotional intelligence is very
important in order to maintain long term relationship with peers.

Before the formation of a team it is important to know the technical knowledge and
emotional quotient of each and every member of the team. They must undergo a program so
that they can work in harmony and develop mutual trust. When working in a team emotional
intelligence plays a very integral role, people are of different skillsets and mind sets and
therefore there are many conflicts regarding various decisions and choices to be made and the
first thing that needs to accepted is the there will be difference of opinions. In a team,
emotions should be dealt with as soon as they arise because it is very important in order to
develop the foundation of the team. The performance of the team depends on how well are
work together in harmony.
The personality and emotions of certain people in the organization are contagious i.e. the
presence of the person boosts performance and productivity of other members by creating a
conducive environment. Our emotions contagious but what the trigger point for that is
mimicking other people's expressions so you go into a workplace where everyone's kind of
frowning you'll tend to start frowning too you go into workplace where people are happy not
be you'll tend to operate that way too. When we get infected by someone else's emotions it
stays with us, we carry through that day, we carry it home to our families, and we carry it into
work the next day and infect new people. When we see people happy around us we are happy
too whereas if people around us are sad or have a negative vibe, we will behave similarly too.
Emotions of a single member in the team can boost or hamper productivity. A good joke
often can cheer up employees and thereby creating a happy environment. People with high
emotional intelligence will know what will people find funny, when to use which phrase, and
how to balance serious work and light-heartedness which increases the employee morale.
People need to listen each other’s views, respond positively both verbally and through body
language. Even if one person wants to oppose the other he must do it in a way not hurting
others feelings and putting forth the point meant to go through. Also it is very important to be
an active listener, so that he can receive criticism and feedback in a positive spirit. One needs
to self-regulate his emotions and not let it affect the way he works with others thereby acting
against others even though they are not at fault.

An individual who is aware about his emotional state has better control over his actions and
therefore able to deal with it accordingly. Also a person who has gone through a situation
similar to that of his peer is more likely to understand the situation better and also help in deal
with it in a better way.

Emotional intelligence is an evitable quality in modern times. Different people have different
emotional quotients and can learn to improve it over time through timely evaluation and
feedback programs. Emotional intelligence is very important in order to maintain a balance
between professional and personal life and to maintain harmony in the both lives. The
importance of emotional intelligence is likely to increase in the future as it is going to be
increasingly vital to hold on to good employees due to lack of specialists and labour force,
especially in a growing economy like India.