How to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence at Work

Counterproductive emotions can affect decision-making, performance, and profitability in an organisation.

Emotional Intelligence at work means being able to build powerful and trusting relationships with colleagues whilst enjoying greater confidence and security.

How to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence at Work
How to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence at Work
Using ‘Emotional Intelligence at work’ to Understand Ourselves

Before we can work better with others, Emotional Intelligence requires us to look within and understand ourselves through the effective use of Intrapersonal skills:

  1. Self-awareness: being conscious of how we react to different situations
  2. Self-management: anticipating and preparing for difficult situations before they happen, and exercising a balance between controlling our emotions and allowing them to flow when we are challenged
  3. Motivation: improving and moving towards our goals despite the challenges that confront us
Using Emotional Intelligence to Handle Our Relationships with Others

Once we understand and can manage ourselves better we are in a good place to remove the barriers that prevent us from working effectively with others. We can do through the use of Interpersonal skills:

Empathy:

Observing people, identifying the emotions they display and putting ourselves in their shoes to better understand their perspectives

Social Skills:

Any skills that help you to strengthen the relationships with the people you work with including:

  • asking questions to learn about others
  • active listening such as paraphrasing to clarify information and others the satisfaction of being heard
  • non-verbal and para-verbal skills such as leaning forward or using more eye-contact to connect, demonstrate interest and build trust with others
Motivation:

In almost every situation in the workplace, when we are trying to get others to collaborate, their core concerns may be in play, such as feeling valued, empowered or receiving the recognition they deserve. Addressing these concerns serves to motivate others and ultimately leads to a greater sense of trust.

10 Questions to Get You Started

A quick and effective way to improve Emotional Intelligence is to keep a journal to reflect and analyse your experiences at work.

If something happens that triggers an emotional reaction in you or the other person, write down your answers to the following questions:
  1. What happened?
  2. What do I think about what happened / What story am I telling myself about what happened?
  3. How do I feel about what happened?
  4. How are my thoughts or interpretations affecting the way I feel?
  5. Is there another way of thinking about what happened that could lead to a more desirable emotional response? For example, if viewed from a different perspective, the belief that “he criticized my ideas because he doesn’t respect me” might be that “he criticized my proposal because he wants to help me improve my idea”
  6. How did the other person feel?
  7. Why did the other person feel that way?
  8. What did I do to manage the situation?
  9. What was the result?
  10. What could I have done better?
Emotional Intelligence takes time to develop. By answering the questions above when faced with challenges at work, and with a little time and effort, you’ll be well on your way.

ADVANCED PRESENTATION SKILLS: 5 Tips to “Wow” Your Audience

5 Tips to “Wow” Your Audience

As a presenter, your goal should be to engage your audience, keep their attention and get them to take action or agree with your point of view.

You are most likely to keep the audience’s attention if you remember that you – not your props or slides – are their main focus. People buy people, so your delivery style matters.

5 Tips to “Wow” Your Audience

In order to deliver compelling presentations, there are many things you can do to boost your performance. (you may also want to check out our advanced Presentation Skills workshop).

We take a look at five essentials:
Be Confident

The key to being confident is preparation. After all, if you are not comfortable with your topic and content, then you won’t appear confident. Therefore, the time invested in the practice and rehearsal stage pays off.

Develop a Process

For greater efficiency and impact, follow a clear process for introducing yourself, getting your presentation started and working through each of the topics you need to cover.

Treat your presentation as a journey and guide your audience through it, by consistently letting them know where you are, where you have come from, and where you are going.

At the outset of your presentation, state your purpose and outline the main points you will cover. When wrapping up your presentation, summarize your content and finish with a clear and memorable conclusion.

Use Vocal Emphasis and Verbal Techniques

For advanced presentations, there will be certain words and messages that you want your audience to remember. There are several para-verbal techniques that you can use to emphasise these important points:

  • Vary your tone of voice and the pace of your delivery this will draw attention to what you are saying
  • Use silence for impact
  • Ask rhetorical questions to connect the audience to your message
Be Aware of Your Body Position and Movement

From your body position and movement, your audience will form impressions about how comfortable you are making your presentation. Moving around the stage can be positive and keep the audience engaged; just be sure to move with purpose.

Before you deliver your presentation, work off any nervous energy because that could convey anxiety to your audience and make a bad impression. Most importantly, avoid putting your hands behind your back, in your pockets, or crossing them in front of you. Each of these things can convey a lack of confidence.

Use Gestures

In order to give your words extra impact, you can use gestures as you speak. For example, if you are describing how a department has to be divided into two, you could indicate separation by pushing your hands apart.

When describing the size, quantity or extent of something, add emphasis by expressing “large” or “small” with your hands. Use your fingers to introduce separate points clearly and sequentially.

Conclusion

For advanced presentations, as well as ensuring your message is logical and credible, you need to connect with your audience and strike the right tone to involve, motivate and gain their support.

These techniques will give your presentations an extra visual dimension that grabs attention so you can hammer your message home.