Are you sulking at the promotion that your colleague just got despite him being less intelligent than you are? Well, it is possible that he is emotionally stronger, versatile and dynamic. The reality is that people who are dynamic, the go-getters as they are fondly known (or known ad nauseam), are at a greater advantage.

Emotional Intelligence And Your Career

If you are unsure whether emotions play a role in your career, assume yourself being moved to a higher position where you are required to plan and execute projects worth a million dollars. The project naturally involves a lot of decision making about your staff and purchases during the course of execution. The sustenance and growth of your career now hinges on this project. Making adept decisions calls for balanced thought processes. Emotional flexibility helps you adapt to demanding situations quickly.

Emotional Traits To Succeed In Your Career

Previously, it was enough just to have good educational qualifications to get and keep a job. But presently work demands are extremely high, requiring you to be stronger in emotional issues.

1. Self-Awareness: Your day-to-day emotions play a role in shaping up the daily activities for you and your staff. Identifying your emotional behaviors and their effects help you understand your strengths or weaknesses. This allows you utilize your full potential which otherwise may get lost.

2. Self-Restraint: Knowledge of your mood swings before others know them is imperative. Impulsive moods and unrestricted emotions, however well intentioned they may be, will spoil the whole game for you. Having checks in place helps channel emotions and your concentration towards productivity.

3. Self-Initiation: Needing someone to push you into a working mood is the result of lethargy and complacency. This is sure to hamper your career prospects in the long run. You dont need anyone else to motivate you to get started! Self-motivated people value the relaxation resulting from an accomplished task; they dont believe in relaxing midway.

4. Interpersonal Skills: Relationship building exercises as a part of your motivational activities helps induce collaborative culture and a sense of responsibility. You can influence others reactions into desirable responses.

5. Empathy: Acknowledging the feelings of others is also important. Your sensibilities, ability to understand frustrations and emotional dynamics and meeting the key needs of all types of people builds loyalty.

You Can Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

Unlike the IQ, EQ, or emotional quotient or intelligence as it is known, can be improved by careful application of mind and perseverance. But how do you know you need to improve upon your emotions? You are a candidate for improvement if you remember a recent incident where you regretted an act immediately after it was over. Psychologist Dr. Hendrie Weisinger advises improving your self-awareness which will open your eyes to your emotional status.

Steps To Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

The following steps may help you improve your emotional performance:

1. Watch your emotional acts over a fortnight, note down any significant acts which you committed or missed. Review them later and note whether your actions helped or damaged your prospects and if it could have been different had you taken a different step or path.

2. Stop impulsive resentments at others mistakes. React to mistakes at a later time when you have cooled off.

3. Realize that you are helpless without your team. Understand their emotional needs which help inspire loyalty toward you.

4. Develop positive thoughts instead of finding faults with others. Finding faults is not the end of the game; rectifying them is.