In this article, we'll be discussing Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman , a bestselling book by this renowned psychologist. He'll explain what it is and how we can successfully apply it in our daily and professional lives.
Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence is the ability that any person has to manage their feelings and emotions in order to express them appropriately. So through this article we will talk about this, so I invite you to continue reading.
This concept has also been used at the business level to understand the productivity of people who work in companies. As well as to measure the success of a company and among other applications on a personal level.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage our own emotions, as well as recognize the emotions of others and try to understand them as well as being able to influence them. In other words, it is being aware that all the emotions that are manifested in our behavior impact both positively and negatively on other people.
[su_note] Just as it is important to learn to manage those emotions so that they do not affect others as well as ourselves. Especially when we are in stress situations that cause an imbalance in our emotions and consequently affect our skills and behavior.[/su_note]
The brain and emotions
According to the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, the brain, being one of the organs that allows the human being to react on certain occasions, gives us the ability to learn from our emotions. He also tells us that in our brain it can be said that two minds live, one of those minds thinks and the other mind feels.
These two minds, so to speak, interact together to build our mental life, for example, the emotional brain responds faster to certain events than the rational brain. In the case of the rational brain, it usually does not decide what emotions you will feel at certain events.
For example, at some point in your lives, you have had to go through certain situations where you lose control and explode, saying a number of things that in your right mind, so to speak, you would never say. Or another example where you suddenly find yourself in a risky situation and you react in the most surprising way, and after the situation passes, you wonder why you reacted that way, in that case your emotional brain was the one who acted in that moment.
Emotional Intelligence and the intellect
Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence tells us that many studies have been done on boys who scored high on selective tests and have compared the levels of satisfaction with respect to these indicators (happiness, prestige or job success) with respect to to the boys with average score. And they concluded that the IQ of a person does not influence whether a person is successful or not.
He says that there are variables such as social class, luck and, to a large extent, the emotional intelligence that the person has in a certain way influence whether he is successful or not. Since the ability that a person can have to stay motivated, to persevere despite obstacles, to know how to control impulses, regulate their own state of mind, control anxieties, understand and above all trust other people, lies in success and in turn emotional intelligence.
This is a determining factor for a person to achieve a full life. That is why those people who adequately control their feelings and know how to interpret them, in addition to knowing how to relate to the feelings of other people. They will have an advantage since they will be able to handle themselves in any area of life that comes their way, from personal to work, and therefore they will be successful in everything.
Two types of intelligence coexist in every person, cognitive and emotional, emotional intelligence is what provides the qualities that make us human beings. Howard Gardner one of the critics of emotional intelligence says that intelligence is not one, but many abilities that all people can have.
Gardner says that there are two types of personal intelligence: the interpersonal, which is the intelligence that allows us to understand other people, and the intrapersonal, which is the one that allows us to know ourselves. On the other hand, Peter Salovey says that the competencies of intelligence are: the knowledge of our own emotions, the ability to control emotions, and the power to motivate oneself.
In addition to recognizing the emotions of other people and control of our relationships. So we can say that emotions not only make us human beings, but also help us in the acquisition of new skills that are associated with the human intellect as well as in making rational decisions.
Gardner went so far as to say that a person's emotional intelligence is very important because without it, we will not choose the right partner, we will not have the right job, among many things. So we must conclude that feelings play an important role in our decision-making skills, since those feelings will give us the security to continue with our decisions.
[su_note]That is why many of the skills that we acquire during our lives will help us to have a balanced life. Just as the ability we have to make decisions is because we are in contact with our own emotions.[/su_note]
Habits of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Next we will give you the habits of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence that every person should have:
Habit 1 Self-control
The ability to self-control impulses and passions is part of the development of a person within a society, since an emotion that is excessively out of control can cause instability and complicated situations. This ability to self-control can be learned and developed, especially when we are still children and our brain is constantly adapting to changes.
For example, when a person gets angry this is an uncontrollable emotion, that most people choose to download all their annoyance with the intention of calming down, but what this will do is increase the annoyance and emotional arousal in the brain and making that the person feels more and more irritated. One of the ways to end anger is knowing with awareness that it was the trigger for this emotion, because sometimes just knowing why it was the cause of anger takes away energy from this emotion.
Another self-control option is to move away from the cause of the anger and change the focus of attention in order to effectively placate it, since in this way all the irritating thoughts that cause anger are put on hold, allowing the emotions to cool down until this disappear. You will wonder how I can achieve it: watching a movie, reading a book, taking a walk or exercising since doing any type of activity will change your mood and ease the discomfort.
[su_note]The importance of having self-control is one of the most important components of emotional intelligence, since through it we are going to think before speaking or acting, as well as giving us the ability to reflect as well as helping us to control our impulses. That has been the key to being emotionally skilled people.[/su_note]
Habit 2 Enthusiasm
According to the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, the ability of people to think, plan, concentrate, solve problems and make decisions can be hindered by our emotions. So the emotional baggage that the person has plus the skills to manage and control emotions will determine the achievements that he can achieve in life.
Skills such as enthusiasm, love of doing things, optimism are ideal stimuli to be a successful person. This is why emotional intelligence is part of the aptitude that we must maintain towards life.
Suppose we have two people with equal innate abilities, one of whom is at the peak of their professional career and the other who is used to rubbing shoulders with mediocrity. One of the differences between the two people is the enthusiasm and tenacity with which this person overcomes problems in the course of his life, without allowing his enthusiasm to wane in order to achieve his goals.
Finally, we can say that the mere fact of channeling our emotions to have self-control is a master aptitude. Since the mere fact of controlling our impulses, regulating our state of mind to help thoughts and the possibility of reflecting, in addition to motivating oneself to be able to achieve what one wants despite adversity, assuming an optimistic aptitude in the face of to your future, will demonstrate the power of emotions to achieve our efforts.
habit 3 empathy
There are people who have an easier time than others to express their feelings, others, on the other hand, do not have that capacity at all, so they may seem like people without feelings. These people are not that they do not feel, but rather that they do not have the ability to identify, understand and express their emotions.
The word empathy is the ability of the person to perceive from the outside the experience of another person. This ability to understand what can happen to another person can be observed in any area of life itself, from the sales of a company, politics, relationships, even in the education of children.
[su_note] Which can lead to the conclusion that empathy helps in a certain way in achieving our goals, since being empathic we improve relationships with other people. In addition, we connect with the other person without ceasing to be ourselves.[/su_note]
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Habit 4 Self-motivation
Focusing our emotions towards the objectives and goals we want will allow us to stay motivated and thus be able to keep the focus on the goals and not on the obstacles. For this, in a certain way, it is necessary to maintain optimism and initiative to be more productive and to be able to react positively to the unforeseen events that come your way.
This ability to motivate ourselves to achieve our goals, leaving behind unjustified fears of what may happen along the way, is of great importance, since motivation makes us focus and implement the best resources and emotions to achieve our goals. So having emotional intelligence gives us the ability not to give up in the short term until we achieve our goals in the long term.
Habit 5 Interpersonal relationships
Having good emotional intelligence allows us to have good relationships with other people and can even allow us to perform better in the workplace. Since this influences how we should treat those types of people who are not so nice to us, so to speak.
Therefore, emotional intelligence will help us understand the causes of it, why some people treat us in a certain way, instead of thinking about how we feel with that person's attitude. When we reach that understanding we can react in the best way to what other people say or do.
Habit 6 Know yourself
To be able to help a person to get what they want in life, it can be easy but the problem is that most people do not really know exactly what they want, for this we must know ourselves and thus be able to act accordingly. with what one wants. And if it is difficult to know our priorities at all times, it is equally or more difficult to be aware of our emotions.
Being aware of our emotions and understanding why a certain situation hurts us. It will allow us to regulate ourselves emotionally and be more competent in the area of emotional intelligence.
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Work and Emotional Intelligence
In the workplace, it is vitally important to control our negative emotions, since these can affect our decision-making, since being immersed in these emotions will prevent us from concentrating properly and making decisions clearly. The new business leadership seeks not to control its employees but rather to persuade them and to achieve the collaboration of all employees to achieve a common purpose.
[su_note] Therefore, every company must know that the center of its organization is its employees and that for the company to function perfectly, it must know how to treat its personnel well. Thanks to emotional intelligence, people can be trained to understand their employees, as well as motivate them to promote productivity within the company and know the work needs of each one of them.[/su_note]
Benefits of Emotional Intelligence
Among the benefits of being emotionally intelligent we have:
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- Emotional intelligence makes us know ourselves.
- It helps us make good decisions.
- Improves people's work performance.
- Protect and avoid stress.
- Improve our interpersonal relationships.
- It helps us with our personal development.
- It gives us leadership skills.
- It gives us psychological well-being.
- It reduces anxiety and helps us overcome depression.
- Increases motivation and goal achievement.
- And it helps you sleep better.[/su_list]
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To conclude this article we can say that emotional intelligence plays a very important role in the personal or professional success of any person. Since thanks to this we can have greater control of our emotions so that they do not interfere with our objectives or goals that we have in life.
For this, Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence tells us that there are 6 habits that are an important part of emotional intelligence that all human beings must cultivate in order to have the expected results in our relationships, at work or in any field. These were: self-control, enthusiasm, empathy, self-motivation, interpersonal relationships and finally knowing ourselves.
[su_note] All these habits are of vital importance that we know them and apply them in our lives in order to develop properly both personally and professionally, we also come to know that our emotions managed correctly can help us achieve our goals, while if our emotions are managed in a bad way, it can cause the failure of our objectives. Since human beings are very emotional and if we don't learn how to self-regulate, we may end up in countless unpleasant situations.[/su_note]
Being intelligently emotional individuals will help us have a better life and achieve everything we set out to do in life, since we will not let our emotions control us. Helping us to be more focused people, who know what they want in life, who will not let themselves down due to the adversities that come their way, in addition to being a highly optimistic person.
If you'd like to read more about interesting books that will teach you something, I'll leave you the following link so you can learn about White Fang.