How to Use Emotional Intelligence to Better Manage Yourself and Your Laundry Business
[This is the second of a two-part column. Part One can be read here.]
While emotional skills may come more naturally to some due to their background and upbringing, there are ways all of us can improve our ability to understand and reason with our emotions. By doing so, you gain the ability to relate better with others within your day-to-day workplace. You will make better decisions and more easily solve problems. You also will keep your cool under pressure; resolve conflicts more effectively; demonstrate greater empathy; and be able to listen, reflect and, actually welcome and respond properly to constructive criticism.
Here’s how:
Become more self-aware.
Self-awareness involves being aware of different aspects of yourself, including your emotions and feelings. This is one of the foundational components of emotional intelligence.
Pay attention to how you are feeling.
How do your work associates influence how you respond and feel?
Take inventory of your emotional strengths and weaknesses.
How well do you actually communicate with others? Do you often find yourself experiencing impatience, anger or annoyance? Recognizing your weaknesses allows you to look for ways to deal with them.
Remember that emotions are most usually fleeting.
A laundry attendant might irritate you, or your supplier might frustrate you on a delivery. However, before you react, remember that these things are temporary. A great rule of thumb is to never permit yourself to make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion. Doing so can easily be detrimental to your long-term goals and success.
Find techniques to relieve workplace stress.
Developing hobbies outside of work is a great starting place. Physical exercise is an outstanding way to relieve stress.
Keep your cool.
Accept the fact that you simply cannot control everything and look for ways of responding that don’t add fuel to every fire.
Think before making decisions.
In the heat of the moment emotions can overwhelm you. You can make a calmer, more rational choice if you give yourself time to consider all of the possibilities.
Improve your social skills.
Listen to exactly what others have to say. Use the technique of “active listening,” which involves showing attention, asking questions and providing feedback.
Pay attention to nonverbal communication.
The various signals that people send through their body language can convey a lot about what they really think.
Hone your persuasion skills.
Being able to carry influence in the workplace and to convince your team members to listen to your ideas can go a long way in advancing your success – and theirs.
Avoid “office drama.”
Do your best to stay out of the petty office politics that sometimes can take over a workplace. Focus on listening to what others are saying, and look for ways to solve problems and minimize tensions.
Work on your motivation.
A large component of emotional intelligence is intrinsic motivation. People who have strong EI tend to be more motivated to achieve goals for their own sake. Rather than seeking external rewards, they want to do things because they find them fulfilling and are passionate about what they do.
Focus on what you love about your work.
Mostly likely, there are elements of your job that you love, as well as some that you hate. Try focusing on the aspects of your job that you enjoy – such as the feeling of accomplishment you derive when you complete a large project – and identify those events and take inspiration from them.
Try to maintain a positive attitude.
Notice how optimistic people in your workplace tend to inspire and motivate others. Adopting this kind of attitude will help you to feel more positively about your work.
Emotional intelligence plays an important role in your well-being, but also in your success in the workplace. Fortunately, there are a number of lessons you can take from the psychology of emotion that will enable you to improve your EI and foster greater emotional competence to improve your workplace performance and career.
In the final analysis, emotional intelligence can more accurately be thought of as “emotional awareness,” because it refers to the ability to identify and manage your personal emotions, along with the emotions of others.
In the words of poet Maya Angelou, it’s highly likely that “10 percent of communication conflict is due to differences in opinions, and 90 percent is due to delivery and tone of voice.”
In some ways, that’s emotional intelligence in a nutshell.
