Emotional intelligence, also known as EQ (emotional quotient) refers to one’s ability to understand, utilize, and manage one’s own emotions in healthy and positive ways as a means of effective communication, empathizing with others, alleviating stress, conquering challenges, and defusing conflict.

Adequate development of emotional intelligence can aid in the development of other crucial skills that can be critical for the achievement of both personal and professional goals (Smith, Segal, Robinson, & Shubin, 2020). By learning and understanding the value of emotional intelligence, you develop a better plan to help you quickly and effectively reach and exceed your goals.

Mental Health

Poor mental health can critically impact your ability to make progress toward goals. When there are high levels of stress and poor management of emotions, your mental clarity can become clouded and make you susceptible to anxiety and depression.

These feelings, as well as others, such as loneliness, isolation, and fear can become your guiding force for decision-making and cloud your ability to properly assess and analyze situations and come to appropriate conclusions.

Strong emotional intelligence works to help you manage your emotions in healthy ways and control impulsive feelings and actions. Additionally, strong emotional intelligence helps adjust to shifting circumstances and building resilience.

These skills help you make clear decisions and move forward in the face of obstacles.

Performance

High emotional intelligence is also linked to improved performance. When EQ is higher, you can lead and motivate other people as well as navigate the social complexities of your workspace.

This means a better ability to understand workplace dynamics, a better ability to break down and solve problems, and a better ability to relate to individuals with whom you may need to work. In the short and long-term, you perform better. The more you understand and the better you assess situations and scenarios you create, the better positioned you are to make good decisions that will move you forward.

Relationships

A strong sense of emotional intelligence means better and stronger relationships with others. When you understand your own emotions, you will be able to connect with other people in your environment in a more authentic and meaningful way.

Social intelligence aids in helping you distinguish between friends and enemies, adequately measuring another person’s interest in you, balancing the nervous system via social communication, reducing stress, and promoting feelings of happiness and love. In turn, social intelligence leads to stronger relationships that can help you achieve more success as you work towards your goals.

The stronger and more authentic a relationship, the better you will be able to work cooperatively with those individuals to achieve goals.

Self-Awareness

A final way emotional intelligence helps you achieve goals is by boosting self-awareness. Via self-awareness, you can recognize your emotions and the impact those emotions have on your thinking and actions. You will then be able to address those emotions leading to negative thoughts and behaviors causing poor choices.

This increased sense of self-awareness can improve your self-confidence and make you aware of your strengths and weaknesses. This can empower you to use your unique talents and strengths to your advantage, while also making you aware of areas where you can improve and make progress towards your goals in meaningful and valuable ways.

References:

Smith, Segal, Robinson, & Shubin. (2020, October). Improving emotional intelligence (EQ). 

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of CHOICES Magazine