Tips and Tricks
As a part of my secondary research, I read Iris Yu’s blog, “Emotional Intelligence describes a person.” Iris is a student at the University at Buffalo who is in MGG 298, Communication Literacy in Business, and is currently conducting research on the soft skill. Yu describes Emotional Intelligence as “a person’s ability to recognize emotions, to understand their effect, and to use that information to guide thinking and behavior” (Yu, 2018). Essentially, this means that Emotional Intelligence can be used as a tool to make decisions by being perceptive to emotions while also being aware of their consequences. When we observe emotions and comprehend the outcomes that may arise from such emotions, we can further develop our thoughts and make better-informed decisions.
Yu provided a list of six ways to improve Emotional Intelligence:
- Reflect on your emotions
- Ask others for their perspective
- Be observant
- Pause before responding
- Focus on the feelings, not what caused them
- Practice!
I really appreciated the list that Iris put together. It’s a practical set of tips and tricks to take advantage of when trying to develop this skill. Emotional Intelligence is such a broad subject it can be hard to find where to start. But by focusing on small things every day like the list provided above, it’ll become second nature and your EQ will improve.
My favorite tip she mentioned that I had never thought of before was to focus on the feelings, not the events that caused them. Sometimes we encounter someone that gets angry or upset for evidently “no reason.” We can’t understand what on earth made them so upset. Yu suggests we approach this situation by focusing on how they’re currently feeling instead of trying to figure out why they felt that way. After all, what is most important is their emotions and we should recognize that and empathize with them.
The tip I need to practice the most is the pause. I saw Susan Rice practice this a lot (See my previous blog post), and I really liked it. It’s a great way to gather your thoughts and think thoroughly before saying or doing something you might regret later.
References
Yu, W. (2018, March 1). Emotional intelligence describes a person [Web log post]. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://medium.com/skill-hacking/emotional-intelligence-describes-a-person-216f83d21868
