IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORKPLACE.

Srishti Shankar, INN/Delhi, @shankar_srishti

“The term ‘social and emotional intelligence’ which sits at the realm of developing effective strategies has known to boost up the productivity-level by 50 per cent.”

‘Emotional Intelligence’, is related to two of the most important aspects of one’s understanding of his or her own emotions i.e-  the ‘capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions’, as well as to ‘handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically’ whereas, ‘Social Intelligence’ is more of an intricate term, very closely related to EI  and can be defined as the effective and overall ability of an individual to react at social situations.

There is no place better than our workstation and work environment which provides us with a benefactor that would help us understand the importance of these aspects more deeply. Considering the situation where we almost spend 90,000 hours of our lifetime at work, we should be aware of all such important aspects which not only help us work more dedicatedly but plays a very a major role in developing our overall inter-personal skills as well. 

The term ‘emotional intelligence’ was initially coined by Michael Beldoch in one of his scientific paper, published in the year ‘1964’. There are 5 basic components of EI, namely- self-awareness, self-regulation, internal (or intrinsic) motivation, empathy and social skills. 

From a glance at these components, it’s easy to see how EI applies in the workplace! Right? Clearly workers with higher in self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, and social skills have a leg up on those who are less motivated. 

Let’s try to look at some of the reasons as to why it becomes important for us to understand and learn about all these important terms which could help us a great deal in overcoming our personal problems and make us more effective and involved at our workplace.

According to a survey it has been well formulated that- people with high EI are more dedicated and they are seen to have peak performances at their workplace than compared with people those having low EI and EQ (Emotional quotient).

Now, the question arises that how emotional intelligence can directly be shown to have improved the job performance, right?

Studies suggest that emotional intelligence training boost the employee’s productivity and boosts up the time management skills. As discussed earlier that emotional intelligence plays an important role in assessing one’s emotion and that of others. It provides us with an advantage so as to how one can maintain their calm attitude under the given abrasive situations. Adding up to these facts, it also to some extent helps us a great deal in developing our Conscientiousness (tendency to be diligent, hardworking, control impulses), which is pretty much the need of the hour in order to sustain our emotions and social credibility at our workplace.

Let us take an example, we all know how important it has become for us to have a level of practicality wherein if we are having a bad day, we should be aware of all the techniques which would help us in keeping our emotions aside from our work and treat our teammates in a usual manner.