How can a company cultivate a culture that encourages EQ

Having a high IQ is an advantage but having high EQ can make all the difference to your life.

Because when dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotions.

Emotional Intelligence means, first of all, how well you manage yourself.

Can you work toward your goals despite the obstacles, do you give up to soon, you have a negative outlook or a positive outlook? These are all emotional intelligence competencies that matter for success.

Emotional Intelligence means the relationship competency:

• to coordinate
• to influence,
• to persuade
• to be a team player

All of those are Emotional Intelligence competencies that distinguish outstanding from average performers.

So, Emotional Intelligence will predict who is a star and who’s just mediocre.

What’s even more important is that the higher you go in the ladder, the more emotion intelligence matters.

Self-aware – you would know what your inner state is, that would help you manage that state well.

Self-management – you would tune in to other people, you’d think about how your decisions affect other people, that’s the social awareness or empathy, part of emotional intelligence.

A person who has all of those: self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and good relationships, is someone who’s highly effective.

Emotional Intelligence isn’t easy to develop: linked to psychological and neurological pathways, it takes huge efforts to change our long-standing habits of human interaction and emotional self-control.

So, how can a company cultivate a culture that stimulate EQ?

1. Create trustworthy workspace. Make sure your employees’ environment provides some degree of freedom and autonomy, for them to follow instincts when it comes to solving problems.
2. Empower Your Employees. Create the necessary conditions in which team members can develop their emotional intelligence. Those three conditions are: trust among members, a sense of group identity and a sense of group efficacy.
3. Identify team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Your team members are more than just employees or a job title. They’re unique individuals who have great stories to tell. If you want to make the most of every team member, then start by getting to know them better.