How Emotional Intelligence Can Boost Your Productivity

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The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

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Intelligence isn’t just solely limited to the amount of academic knowledge you hold or your ability to reason. An often overlooked kind of intelligence that is more important than most people think is emotional intelligence. Many people think emotions shouldn’t have any bearing in a profit-driven industry. That’s just ridiculous, everyone is human, and therefore, everyone likes being treated like one.

Qualities of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is much easier to explain if we discuss the qualities that you might not even notice you use already.

Empathy

This is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Empathy allows you to understand how and why a person feels a certain way about certain things. For example, a co-worker is starting to talk about some of their worries at home. Instead of trying to change the topic, perhaps share some of your own experiences or nod sympathetically. I’ve managed to connect with co-workers through simple nods of sympathy at work.

Socialization

This is the ability to interact with people directly using your words and body language. While empathy lets you feel how the other person feels, socialization is what lets you reach out to them and successfully communicate with people. Socializing is simple enough to do, but quite hard to master if you’re a bit on the introverted side.

One time, a co-worker of mine was rather secretive at work. They often ate alone and would sit in the corner during lunch hours. Approaching them revealed a very fun person to talk to, and not only that, sharp. They provided advice that I would not have known had I not reached out to them.

Maturity

This is the ability to cope with your emotions in a healthy and logical way without bottling it up. For example, if you feel insulted by another person, maturity is when you don’t let your frustration manifest in a harmful way such as lashing out.

I saw this in action once, when a person got a bit drunk at an office party and said some rather personal insults. Instead of reacting violently, the insulted person just helped bring them to their car. The next day, they apologized and they’ve been fast friends since.

Of course, that won’t happen every time, but if you keep your cool, the chances that it will increase are pretty high.

Good Character Judgment

Being able to tell a lot about a person from a few minutes of interaction is a sign of emotional intelligence. For example, you have to choose between a friend of yours at work versus someone you are only acquainted with as a partner on a personal project.

While having a friend might be tempting, they aren’t an expert on the skills you need that the acquaintance is. In this situation, it was left up to my judgment to tell who was better for the job, and going with the acquaintance went well. I had two friends by the end of it, and I finished the project in good time.

Practical Applications of Emotional Intelligence at Work

The qualities above won’t be of much use unless you actively start using them in the workplace.

Giving Advice

One of the simplest and most common ways to apply your emotional intelligence is through giving advice. A lot of people might have some pride and not immediately let you help them, for example. Others might be too shy and simply don’t communicate their need for help.

An effective way to help them without holding their hand is by giving them advice. For newbies, I find that talking to them in a matter-of-fact way and diffusing their tension with light humor is a great way to get habits to stick.

Discipline

Routine and consistency are important qualities in a professional work environment. Using tools such as task trackers is easier when you have the discipline for them. Additionally, discipline in the workplace means you are less likely to crack under pressure.

For this one, I have the opposite example. In my first few weeks, I got very lax with a certain task. So much so, that I was called into the office, where I was embarrassed to realize that people have been politely telling me to be more active with tasks, signs I missed since I wasn’t paying much attention to people. Discipline would have done me some good then.

Pitching Ideas

Having a good idea isn’t always enough in the workplace. Many good ideas often don’t see the light of day for years because nobody has sold them to their superiors in the right way. When I was pitching a new cybersecurity software to my boss, for example, he was mostly humoring me until I reached the part about seamless integration, which piqued his interest.

Noticing this, I changed my project on the fly to talk about how awesome it is with our current project. Long story short, it was approved, and if I hadn’t been looking at my boss’s reactions during the presentation, it probably would have been passed over.

HR Disputes

Whether you are bringing a concern to HR or you are the HR person assigned to resolve it, it’s important to be emotionally intelligent in that line of work. Your goal is to resolve the issue for all involved ASAP, so they can manage their time better.

For example, two employees had a minor dispute about music being played at work. A quick inspection showed that the music playing employee was actually one of the most productive employees.

He felt bad about the music playing but said his earphone jack didn’t work on his desktop at the office. Since there weren’t any real policies against music at work, IT simply fixed their earphone jack issue and the conflict was resolved.

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence should not be disregarded in a work setting. If anything, being emotionally intelligent is the key to success. This is all not just backed by facts, but personal experience.

Emotional intelligence was crucial in my personal climb up the corporate ladder. It not only got me more productive in my job but also a lot more engaged. Emotions are an important part of work and don’t let people tell you otherwise.

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