Emotional Awareness

“Each life on earth as deep as an OCEAN.

Lucky, being a human with different NOTIONS.

Racing for life – ideas, feelings, success-all in a big COMMOTION.

Sometimes, let’s dive deep in and analyse EMOTIONS.”

Everyone emphasizes on developing Intelligent Quotient. How much do we work upon emotions? To develop a good Emotional quotient (EQ) or Emotional Intelligence (EI), it’s very important to have emotional awareness. Researches show that Emotional Intelligence can matter more than Intelligent Quotient.

Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who popularized EI, defines Emotional Intelligence as the ability to recognize, understand and manage our own emotions as well as influence the emotions of others. Goleman has developed a framework of five elements that define Emotional Intelligence. The following image shows these five elements –


Image credit :- Pixabay

In this blog, I have tried to relate these five elements with our daily lives at five different levels to increase our emotional awareness.

  1. Self Awareness – At Personal Level

People with high EI are self aware. They understand their emotions, so their feelings don’t rule them. They are confident and don’t let their emotions out of control. They are honest, know their strengths and weaknesses and improvise on them. We can implement this feature at personal level.

Vipul, who joined his first job attended an important meeting at office and was asked by his senior to write MOM. He did not know its meaning. Without any hesitation, he decided to be honest and asked his senior what it means? This further added to his knowledge.

 “ Self awareness leads to self progress”

  1. Self Reporting / Self Regulating – At Family Level

It’s the ability to control emotions and impulses. Such people have thoughtfulness, integrity, ability to say NO, comfortable with change. This can help at home – family level. How?

Control over once emotions and understanding those of others can help a lot in situation of difference of opinions. Vatsal got his job placement in Sales department in a reputed FMCG firm. The job required him to sell cigarettes and alcohol products. For family members, it was happiness packed with the shock of their lives. But, good thing was Vatsal had a courage to say NO to such offer. He was clear not to begin his career by doing work against his own will, though it would have given him a handsome salary package.

  1. Motivation – At Professional Level

People with high degree of emotional intelligence are usually motivated. They are willing to defer the immediate results for long term success. They are highly productive, love a challenge and are very effective in whatever they do. Being motivated can help us at every stage of life.

Mother – the biggest motivator who never gives up on her child. She is the one who would never stop encouraging her child to keep trying – be it child’s first steps to learn walking to the biggest career moves.

At professional level or at work place, highly motivated employees implies high productivity. Sudha joined HR department of an IT company. As a fresher, she was facing challenges each day at work. Her team member Smita guided her initially in preparing MIS reports which was very challenging for Sudha. Had there been no guidance and motivation, Sudha wouldn’t have been able to perform efficiently and get promotion within six months of her new job.

  1. Empathy – At Public Places

It’s the ability to identify with and understand viewpoints of others. Empathetic people are usually excellent at managing relationships. They don’t judge too quickly and live their lives honestly.

At public places, this feature can help to relate to others, make beautiful, priceless and lifelong relations. Since my childhood, I have seen my father thanking our school bus driver for his safe and careful driving. He would also greet each and every customer at his work place with great enthusiasm. This has helped him having loyal and good customer relationship.

“ I believe Empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” – Roger Ebert

  1. Social Skills – At Social Level

It’s usually easy to talk to people with good social skills. They are team players, can manage disputes, excellent communicators, masters at building and maintaining relationships. So, at social level, whether its colleagues having lunch together or catching train to work together, having fun together. This helps to keep stress out of equation and eventually contribute towards emotionally intelligent workplace.

Emotional Intelligence characterizes the most admirable of human organizations. The three CEO s here use emotional intelligence that expands their businesses. Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Ursula Burns at Xerox and Elon Musk at Tesla. The fourth largest railway network in the world- The Indian Railways has recently started implementing EI training to its officers. A Senior officer says it can help reduce the number of train accidents, better understanding amongst employees, better work coordination, reduction in union strikes etc.

So, wishing you best ladies…. beware of emotions, be it yours or of people around you, manage them well, express them appropriately and effectively and work towards achieving success.

You may want to read another article written by same author: ‘Be a child at heart, filled with self confidence‘ .

About the author:

Vasudha has a post graduate degree in management and has three plus years of experience in the field of Human Resources. She has been a part time Yoga instructor. She is currently employed as a home maker and enjoys to spend quality time with her kids. She likes to explore new areas of learning.

(The author is a guest blogger at Her Second Innings. The opinions expressed are those of the author.) You can reach our guest bloggers by mailing us at support@hersecondinnings.com.

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