Emotional intelligence

When I was in school I didn't achieve such good grades; so does that mean I won't be successful in my life?

Well, I have good news for you. Most of the most successful entrepreneurs who own giant companies today quit their jobs or were laid off at some point. Very few have inherited fortunes, but have had to fend for themselves, many started with the money to pay for ice cream and a good idea. But one aspect that was important to their development was the application of Emotional Intelligence, a term that we will be breaking down to apply in the Coaching work.

What is emotional intelligence?

Earlier we referred to this term and its use in Coaching. Emotional intelligence was coined in 1990 by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer. It refers to the ability to identify and manage both one's own emotions and those of others and is part of our cognitive ability to mediate interpersonal behavior. The term was popularized years later in 1995 by Daniel Goleman, defining it as the ability to be aware of managing one's feelings in order to express them in an appropriate and effective way, as well as the impact it has on other people both negatively and positively.

What application does emotional intelligence have in Coaching?

Since we are addressing these matters, for Coaching it is necessary to master notions and identify practice skills for our clients by supporting their growth, i.e. in their self-knowledge; understanding the causes of their main interests, the influence on their thoughts and actions. When we are in the presence of a work team with differences, we must help them to find a common interest in order to favor their emotional autonomy and increase their capacity for self-motivation and self-esteem through positive attitudes that can be reflected in the development of the company to which they belong.

These solutions, carried out through empathy and teamwork can find their psychological basis in emotional intelligence with the motive of conflict resolution to generate well-being at a general level, both for ourselves and for others.

We cannot ignore that there is always a labor competition from other companies, and success sometimes depends on the organizational level that is achieved.

It should be noted that the best work team gets better and better results but there is always a leader, someone who is in charge of managing the welfare and motivation of any project, and that is the Coach.

Self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge is based on self-awareness, to understand and recognize the strengths and weaknesses, emotions and impulses of our own state of mind in general. Why is it important to know ourselves?

It is important to be able to understand ourselves and to know our capacities, how far we can go, what limits we can establish as well as the type of temperament we have, something that cannot be eliminated or cured because it is not a disease, but it can be molded with time. Knowing what sensations make us sad or happy to have knowledge of how to act in a specific case. Generally this is an internal exercise to achieve mastery of our emotions.

Self-control.

It is important as part of the management of emotions that we maintain a standard aptitude; self-control. As a Coach we are confronted daily with the emotions of our colleagues or clients; we cannot forget that we are in a work environment and we must know how to release the emotional load caused by the pressure of the situation. It will always be good to remember that others are also under the same pressure and it is up to us to find a balance between what you feel and how to express it in the right way so that your judgment is taken into account. The most important thing is to convey the best possible experience to the environment.

Self-motivation.

If we are going to start a new day, we take a few precious minutes of our time and review the actions to do, but this goes hand in hand with self-motivation; a tool of emotional intelligence with which we can boost our mood, remember what our goals are, what our purpose is, know how far we have to go to achieve it and minimize the difficulties.

A relevant touch is that our psychic emotional state is reflected in our demeanor and appearance; so if we are trying to take care of our emotions, we must also take care of our physical image; with this I am not saying that you should wear a suit if it is not necessary, but understand that a client judges you by what he sees and that first impression is in your hands.

Part of self-motivation also takes part in our ability to learn, when we are clear about our goal we become aware of the tools we must learn to stimulate our intellect, reach more people, improve our current situation.

Normally someone does this for us, approaches us and tries to highlight the skills and moral values we possess; but we cannot depend on other people to maintain a state of mind that allows us to face the world every day, we are already a company and we must keep it active and producing well-being.

Empathy.

Developing the ability to be able to consciously visualize how our actions influence the environment is something typical of empathy, with it, we can put ourselves in the other's place and understand their concerns from a more human point of view. As a consequence of this empathy we learn to take conscious control of a more constructive way of expressing ourselves, even when we are going to make criticisms; to know the positive or negative of each situation and encourage the client to reach their own conclusions taking into account our guidance. As we grow in experience we learn that our social behavior has consequences, taking care of our work space and the material means at our disposal also generates well-being not only at a personal level but also at a collective level, as we know we all use the same door to enter and we all defend the same company.