Emotional Intelligence: the key to unlocking your true potential
Emotional Intelligence: we’re all human, and emotions are an integral part of our existence. Whether we realise it or not, these emotions influence us and those around us every single day.
Developing Emotional Intelligence provides powerful psychological tools that help you identify your emotions and those of others. By managing your emotions maturely and intelligently, it puts you in the driver’s seat. You’re then able to have your emotions to work for you rather than against you.
Daniel Goleman – Science Writer for the New York Times
The concept of Emotional Intelligence gained widespread popularity in the 1990s. This is thanks to the ground breaking work of Daniel Goleman, a science writer for the New York Times.
Goleman was part of a growing group of researchers who were concerned that traditional tests of cognitive intelligence failed to capture the full picture of what it takes to be truly successful in life. He argued that business success wasn’t solely determined by cognitive intelligence but also by our emotional intelligence.
Goleman’s the author of 14 bestselling books, including Working with Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence – why it can matter more that IQ.
Self Awareness: the cornerstone of Emotional Intelligence
Self-awareness is the cornerstone of Emotional Intelligence. Becoming self-aware is the process of:
- understanding yourself,
- being attuned to the way you feel, and
- recognising the impact your emotions can have on your decisions and actions.
Avoiding Shoe Size Moments
Building self-awareness requires tuning in to your feelings and developing the ability to recognise an emotion as it happens. Therefore, simply put, when you’re aware of your emotions (ie, self-aware), you can better manage them.
As Julie South says (Director of VetStaff) being emotionally intelligent helps people avoid (and hopefully eliminate) having shoe size moments. These are when adults (sadly and embarrassingly) act their shoe size, rather than their mature, adult and chronological, age.
Awareness of others can be described as the ability to understand and respond to the needs of those around you. Getting this right means people feel valued, listened to, and understood. Get it wrong, and you can come across as uncaring or insensitive.
Therefore, more skilled you are at picking up on others’ signals, the better you’ll be at connecting with them.
Recognising personal triggers
We all recognise that different situations can trigger different emotions within us. For example, a family get-together may trigger joy or anxiety. Moreover, a call to the boss’s office may trigger excitement or worry.
Emotional Intelligence doesn’t place a value on the emotions we experience. Instead, it allows us to acknowledge our emotions as they occur and gives us the opportunity to choose how to respond.
In the DISC Flow® model, your level of emotional intelligence is assumed to be the factor that enables how well you control your behaviour.
Moreover, it’s widely acknowledged that a person with high levels of emotional intelligence is better able to manage themselves according to the demands of the environment they find themselves in.
Therefore, when you increase your emotional intelligence, you’ll:
- become a better communicator,
- strengthen your relationships with others, and
- improve the overall quality of your life.
As the American poet Maya Angelou wisely said,
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Investing in DISC Flow® Emotional Intelligence assessments at your veterinary clinic means that knowledge and skill will combine to unlock your team’s true potential.
Find out more
To find out more about upping the Emotional Intelligence at your clinic please get in touch with us by completing the info below. We promise to get back to you ASAP!