Conflicting and stressful situations often arise within work teams due to the pressure of tasks. Deadlines and personal matters of each team member can add to this pressure. As part of a team, we are exposed to daily tensions that can be challenging to manage.

Emotions brought on by our jobs can affect our relationships with others, whether they are positive or negative. They can also directly impact our mental and physical health. Therefore, it is crucial to understand ourselves and learn to manage our impulses and emotions in difficult and stressful situations.

A team of InkuA members from the Organizational Psychology area conducted a workshop and shared the results of their research on emotional intelligence in the workplace with the foundation team.

In this article, we want to share some highlights from the meeting and offer some tips for strengthening your emotional intelligence in order to take care of your mental and physical health.

What is emotional intelligence?

What we currently know as emotional intelligence has its origins in what Edward Thorndike called social intelligence, which is the ability to understand social contexts and to act intelligently in our relationships with others.

Based on this concept, North American psychologist Howard Gardner developed the idea of multiple intelligences, including intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to understand oneself) and interpersonal intelligence (the ability to understand and perceive other people's motivations, intentions, and moods).

Building on the research of Thorndike and Gardner, American psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey defined emotional intelligence as "the ability to accurately perceive, appraise, and express emotions; the ability to find and/or cause feelings that facilitate thought; and the ability to understand and regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and understand our own emotions and the emotions of others, to use that information to guide our thoughts and behaviors, and to regulate our emotions to adapt to the context and achieve our goals.

What are the components of emotional intelligence? 

There are several theoretical models that attempt to explain the composition of emotional intelligence. Some of these models describe emotional intelligence as a set of cognitive skills used to process emotional information, while others view it as a mixed system that involves both cognitive skills and emotional, affective, personal, and social factors that influence how we adapt to different contexts.

Two of the most well-known models of emotional intelligence that take a holistic approach are the competencies model developed by American psychologist Daniel Goleman, and the non-cognitive intelligence model developed by Israeli psychologist Reuven Bar-On.

Competence model 

Daniel Goleman believes that people have both an intellectual quotient (IQ) and an emotional quotient (EQ), which work together to allow us to understand and interpret the world. According to Goleman, cognition and emotions are interconnected and exchange information in order to influence our thoughts, behaviors, and decision-making.

Based on this idea, Goleman identified several components that are part of emotional intelligence: 

• Awareness of ourselves (self-awareness): the awareness we have about our own moods and intuitions.
• Self-regulation (self-management): the ability to manage our emotions and impulses. 
• Motivation (motivation): emotional competencies that guide our emotions towards the achievement of objectives. 
• Empathy (social awareness): the ability to recognize emotions and other people's feelings. 
• Social skills (relationship management): the ability to communicate and relate to others in a clear and proper way.

Emotional intelligence can be measured by considering factors such as self-awareness of our moods and intuitions, impulse control, the ability to manage our emotions to achieve our goals, empathy towards others, and the ability to communicate assertively with others.  

Non-cognitive intelligences model 

Reuven Bar-On, on the other hand, uses the term emotional and social intelligence and defines it as a set of interconnected emotional and social competencies that determine how we relate to the world, understand context, and express ourselves.
Based on this idea, the Israel-born author defines six components that make up emotional intelligence:

• Intrapersonal: includes the ability to understand and express our own feelings, accept our limitations, set and achieve goals, and manage ourselves effectively.
• Interpersonal: involves empathy towards others, the ability to establish and maintain social relationships, and the ability to cooperate in a group setting.
• Of adaptability: to identify problems and think of solutions, adapt to new situations and experiences, and adjust our emotions and behaviors to changing contexts.
• Stress management: it includes our tolerance to stressful situations and the ability to control our impulses.
• Of mood in general: shaped by our capacity to feel satisfaction and our ability to discover positive aspects of experiences.

The importance of emotional intelligence at the workplace

Given that emotional intelligence shapes how we relate to our surroundings, it is essential for our overall well-being. By developing our emotional intelligence, we can create healthy relationships with ourselves and others. Therefore, it is important to consider the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace in order to create a positive work environment and improve our daily work experiences.

There are many benefits to developing emotional intelligence in the workplace, including:

• Employees tend to perform better in their roles when they are satisfied with their work environment. A positive work environment that fosters emotional intelligence can lead to increased job satisfaction and improved performance.
• People who regularly face stressful and conflict situations can effectively manage them without negative impacts on their own health or the health of the team by using proper emotional intelligence skills.
• People in leadership positions can enhance their positive leadership skills through the development of emotional intelligence.
• Teams can improve their cooperation and creativity by fostering empathy among their members through the development of emotional intelligence.

For these reasons, it is important to focus on promoting emotional intelligence within the work team in order to achieve optimal performance and enhance individual and group abilities in a healthy and positive environment.

Tips to improve our emotional intelligence 

There are many strategies to improve emotional intelligence, and it is not possible to mention them all in this article. However, here are a few tips that may help you improve your self-awareness and your ability to relate to your surroundings

• Recognize your emotions and increase your emotional vocabulary: pay attention to the emotions that arise in your day-to-day life. Try to define and explain them in a clear and sincere way. 
• Face your emotions: accept your emotions as they are. Don’t suppress them. Recognize them in all their complexity.
• Empathize: Understanding that others have their own thoughts and emotions, which may be different from ours, is important. It is important to respect the emotions of others, even if we do not fully understand or agree with them..
• Communicate: don't assume that others will automatically understand your emotions; instead, try to express them clearly and respectfully in order to be understood. Remember to listen actively to others as well and try to understand their emotions and perspectives.
• Allow the expression of emotions: It is important to allow others to express and share their emotions, and to do so yourself as well. This can help build trust and understanding within a team and foster a positive work environment.
• Seek feedback: Seeking feedback from others can be a helpful way to gain perspective on your emotions. Sharing your emotions with someone and asking for their advice or opinion can help you better understand yourself and your feelings. It can also be beneficial to seek the perspective of others to help you see things from a different angle.
• Professional help: If needed, don’t hesitate in seeking professional help to develop your emotional intelligence. 

By keeping these tips in mind and actively working to improve your emotional intelligence, you can strengthen your relationships with yourself and your surroundings.

We would like to express our gratitude to Lourdes Bailone, Sara Rivarola, Nicolas Carrera, Camila Duarte, Agostina Bazzolo, Viviana Almeida, Estefania Perez, Azul Tessón, and Claudia Loulie Sánchez Jiménez for their research work and workshop that inspired this article.

 
If you want to learn about various job skills or manage your own research, join InkuA and participate in our internships.

Copywriter (ES): Nicolas Darchez

Translation to English: Briana Herrera