Give Me EQ – AND NOW!

EQ, known as Emotional Intelligence can play a big role in your success at work and your time away from work.  CEOs need EQ more than ever. Today, it’s routine for CEOs to manage rapidly changing technology, outside economic forces, restrictive regulations, a more mobile staff, diverse workforces, locations, and skill sets. Of course, CEOs are not the only people with busy lives, it’s the norm for everyone.

We all experience stress from the demands on our time. The demands from our boss on projects we need to complete yesterday! The demands from our families not only add stress, but sometimes guilt. I should call Aunt Martha, I could have visited cousin Fred while he was in the hospital, and poor second cousin twice removed, Mary living all alone. Of course, Mary probably likes it that way, but you still store the guilt, just in case. During the holidays, demands are compounded due to increasing our social activities, trying to meet year-end deadlines, getting projects ready for launch for the new year, and people who expect to be included in our scope of attention. If ever we need to call on our EQ, it’s during the holidays.

Let’s look at ways we can maximize the effectiveness of our behaviors coupled with the tools of EQ that will help us navigate certain circumstances better than maybe last year when you told your mother-in-law to stuff it…and you weren’t referring to the Turkey!

Self-Awareness: As with solving any problem or challenge, we must first look inward. Having the ability to anticipate feelings and be mentally and physically aware of a change in how you are feeling allows you to put much more thought behind how you react and respond to your triggers.

Self-Regulation: Having a high sense of self-regulation allows you to manage responses and reactions to emotionally charged events. Further, you will temper physical signs of facial, hand movements, and overall body language reactions to your triggers. This helps you to accomplish many tasks through the utilization of people and the creation of teams for day-to-day work activities and beyond like when your six-year-old nephew squirts you with his water gun in front of your new significant other.

Motivation: Having a high sense of motivation can help you go beyond the rewards of even your primary driving forces and a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence. This helps you to put petty differences and triggers in a better perspective and to overcome them. You’ve got bigger fish to fry. Keep this in mind as you listen to your brother’s story for the 50th about how he told his boss off.

Empathy: The power of being high in empathy allows you to see things from someone else's perspective. Being able to step out of a mindset is key in being able to achieve social recognition and team identification within the organization. Empathy helps to build trust and to engage in more effective teamwork. Families are teams too!

Social Skills: Having good social skills allows you to proficiently manage relationships (yes, even meddling Aunt Martha) and build networks. You can inspire and guide groups through nurturing relationships and create group cooperation. It is important to be able to set aside your own motivators, wants and, needs (not values) to form relationships that don't directly lead to the fulfillment of your own goals.

With just a little effort and awareness, it’s possible to survive not only everyday stress, but times when stress is compounded. Yes, even when you get up in the middle of the night to sneak the last turkey leg and trip over little Jimmy’s car collection and break your mother’s favorite lamp.

Thank you for reading this blog. If you would like to discuss how to build EQ in your organization, call 404-320-7834, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit www.performstrat.com.

Graphic Credit: BigStock.com Copyright: Kasia Bialasiewicz