This article by Aneta Buckthought, Founder and Process Coach at pure-ception Limited, explores how and why emotional intelligence is able to help workers to generally cope with the high demands and pressures of the future of work.
INTRODUCTION
We live in a complex world with advanced technology and new trends. The work world requires that individuals develop specific knowledge and skills as well as have the ingenuity to lead organisations to success and help them achieve desired outcomes. Increasingly higher expectations and pressures due to changes in the industry can create challenges that are difficult to overcome. That is why Emotional Intelligence has a great capacity to help professionals cope with the high demands that the future of work presents, thereby ensuring that their organisations will thrive.
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?
According to D. Goleman, 80% of success at work is determined by Emotional Intelligence (EI) while only 20% stems from ordinary intelligence (IQ). Thus, it’s important to understand: What is Emotional Intelligence?
Often, Emotional Intelligence is defined as an individual’s ability to perceive, understand, use, and manage emotions in oneself and others. To succeed, one must cultivate Emotional Intelligence by using its five key concepts:
Self-awareness – the ability to recognise our own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and motivations, as well as how those emotions affect us, our performance, and others. With balanced emotions and awareness in place, we can use our emotional skills to achieve high performance, gain self-motivation, and acquire excellent people skills – all of which will prove beneficial in creating good relations with clients and work colleagues.
Self-regulation – recognised by the capacity to understand, control, and redirect negative emotions into more productive and definite purposes. It encourages individuals to reduce and manage negative feelings and to develop the necessary skills to handle those emotions in a productive manner.
Social skills – comprises the abilities to manage functional relationships with others and to direct others. This skill is essential for leading teams, dealing with high-profile clients, and building trust within an organisation. When we understand our own emotions and create emotional balance, we find that other people become accessible and enjoyable. Social skills are highly recommended for those who struggle with networking.
Empathy - the ability to recognise emotions in others. It is a vital skill to have. When we show emotional understanding of others, we create a safe space that allows for openness and trust. This can be seen in leaders who have a good reputation amongst their clients and employees.
Motivation - an individual’s emotions towards goals and achievements. Those who retain their emotional balance have power with respect to the creative environment of work, where motivation comes naturally and does not need to be forced by different methods. Motivation helps a team progress with its work when that team is led by someone who is emotionally stable.
OVERCOMING THE UPCOMING CHALLENGES
The vast transformation in the way we work and the creation of new technology that is replacing people’s jobs drives organisations towards new methods and solutions whose results, for many, are still unknown. There is no time to sit back, as the change is already happening. Thus, if individuals and organisations practise Emotional Intelligence, they can increase their chances of overcoming the most common challenges regarding the future of work.
THE FUTURE OF WORK IS NOW
Technology is a fast-growing force which rapidly changes the future of work. The creator of new, productive methods of work which require new skills from all employees can be seen as a thread. With developed Emotional Intelligence, we can evolve certain abilities, such as empathy, that technology tends to neglect. The aim of empathic abilities is to understand another person instead of perceiving him or her as a being. This can provide help in many relationships with new clients, team members, leaders, and so on. For some organisations, building good relationships seems to be more critical then advancing technology.
Globalisation is one of the many issues that organisations are facing. Emerging cultural changes due to migrations, with the need for expanding the economic market, can create many uncertainties for organisations and employees. Global communication and mutual understanding are “musts” for the future of work. Due to the cross-cultural working environment, it is important to “understand” another person and his or her culture, vocabulary, and expressions. By developing excellent social skills, along with the other concepts of Emotional Intelligence, we create the ability to engage in effective global negotiation, which leads organisations to success.
Developing new skills and exceptional talents is important to the future of work. Due to rapid change, customers’ demands, new laws, and management structures and styles, workplaces are pushed to their limits; they are forced to implement changes to their job descriptions and to seek new talent. With increasing awareness of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace, and by practising its methods and techniques, employees can develop new skills to help them cope with upcoming challenges. This will create exceptional new talent and drive performance and well-being through a more sophisticated method such as Emotional Intelligence. In fact, high rotation and job change among employees will result in a new breed of highly skilled workers.
High stress levels amongst employees are increasing every year due to growing expectations, pressure, and long working hours. Also, stress is one of the biggest causes of long-term sickness absence from work, which can create an unhealthy environment and result in the loss of business and valuable assets such as qualified professionals. Emotional Intelligence and its concepts of self-awareness and self-management will improve employees’ confidence levels, ensuring that they can work more efficiently. When they understand their emotions, they can manage expectations more productively and assist others who are dealing with similar issues. Emotional Intelligence gives us the ability to manage our own impulses and express emotions in an assertive manner. It has many benefits for individuals who are dealing with stress and burnout.
DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Recent studies show that 70% of individuals are considering the use of new approaches towards self-help as a means of enhancing their abilities to improve employment prospects in the future.
With this in mind, upcoming challenges can be overcome only through the use of methods that can be quickly adapted by individuals and used within the realm of work. Thus, the process of helping individuals to develop their flexibility, empathy, social skills, and other concepts of Emotional Intelligence will create positive attitudes, which in turn lead to productivity, well-being, and a better work environment. We must remember that emotions are powerful tools and that by balancing and using them correctly, we can create a better future for the world of work.
Aneta Buckthought is the Founder and a Process Coach at pure-ception Limited. Her unique focus lies within Emotional Intelligence, teaching people to achieve emotional balance and focusing on one’s authentic self.