Whether we’re talking about hiring a new colleague, addressing a conflict, or dealing with a customer complaint, it can all be handled better and with a greater outcome when emotional intelligence is brought into the mix.

Investing in EI comes with a lot of benefits, both on the financial side (revenue increase, yey!), as well as in less material things (but just as important), like improved motivation and engagement of your team, employee retention, greater team dynamics, and enhanced customer experience.

With an EI approach, your people will continue to grow while your end product keeps getting better and better. Here’s why you should integrate emotional intelligence into these 5 areas of development:

1. Organizational emotional culture 

A company’s stand on emotions, attitudes, and personal values – in other words, its emotional culture – has a huge impact on the quality of work its people do, teamwork as well as financial performance. That is because when employees feel comfortable expressing their emotions at work, they tend to be more productive, creative, and innovative.

The thing with the emotional culture is that, even if there is no explicit talk about the way we want (or don’t) people to behave in the office, it’s still there, passed on through the wonders of emotional contagion. Take a look around you next time you’re at work – chances are you share the same feelings as the person closest to you. And that’s alright: the emotional state of the people around you affects the way you feel.

Start designing the experience you want your coworkers to have with our (free!) Emotional Culture Index Assessment for an encompassing overview of the emotional climate in your team or organization.

2. Recruitment

Evaluating the candidates’ EI capabilities to see if they will be a good fit for your team saves you precious time and resources. Following, onboarding the successful recruitees with an EI focus introduces them to expected behaviors and helps them integrate smoothly into the EI culture of your office.

With these in mind, we’re using the Emotional Intelligence Selection Report, an assessment tool that helps HR teams access expansive reports of their candidates’ EI performance, for informed and better decision making.

3. Leadership

Emotionally intelligent leadership means better decision-making, employee retention (poor management is frequently the reason for quitting jobs), and improved motivation and commitment within your team.

A leader that is present, empathetic, genuine and resilient is a positive influence on others and will nudge trust, connection, and communication. That’s because enhanced awareness of self and others allows for leading transformational change that feels comfortable for all kinds of personality types. Check our program Leading with EI for a roadmap of your growth as an EI skilled leader and (subsequently) the growth of your people.

4. Performance management & development planning 

Meaningful performance management, be it through workplace coaching or assisted development planning, will encourage vulnerability and authenticity, nudge wellbeing and create insight that will empower your people to commit to their goals.

But here’s the deal: growth cannot be forced – it needs kindness, time, and emotional intelligence to take shape. Professional coaches focus a great deal of their attention on understanding and stimulating one’s self-awareness, authenticity, self-management, awareness of others, emotional reasoning, and positive influence. Learn how to apply their methods with Leader as coach.

5. Team dynamics and conflict management

The health of our relationships impacts our mental health, our drive, and our engagement.

Developing our relationship intelligence leads to higher levels of empathy, trust, and better conflict management. In other words, by boosting the RQ of your team, you improve the way your people collaborate and address differences.

The deal with conflicts is not their cause (our differences essentially, and we ALL see the world in a slightly different shade) but how they are addressed. By understanding the different motives and communication styles that we have, the dynamics of our relationships become easier to navigate, and that allows us to get to the core of our issues and find solutions.

As can be seen, there are many ways to get your people feeling valued and motivated and EI is a big part of them all. Start small, but start today. And feel free to contact us for tailored paths that will suit your team’s needs best.