Emotional Intelligence and Better Relationships

Nowadays, there is justifiably a lot of talk about "EQ" or Emotional Intelligence. Even organizations are looking to recruit only those with high EQ. HR managers are aware that if they hire candidates with low IQ, there are chances of frequent tussles among employees. Such employees may pose a problem to their bosses as well. Ultimately, there will be a severe impact on the productivity of companies. 

Even in our day-to-day life, EQ plays a major role in maintaining relationships. Let us now find out how you must make efforts to improve your emotional intelligence so that you can lead a peaceful life and can also be a good employee in your organization.

1. Get conscious about how you react to situations

The foremost step to improve your emotional intelligence is to be aware of how you feel or how you react to situations. This is not easy because in life or in your career, you encounter various types of situations. Some situations may make you feel happy, a few others may make you squirm, and yet a few others may frustrate or even anger you. But regardless of the nature of the situations, you should learn to "observe yourself." You should be aware of the feelings that dominate your mind during those situations and how the feelings induce you to react. 

In general, when people encounter behaviors or actions they do not like, they are likely to have unpleasant feelings. Their breathing may get heavier, some people may clench their fists as if they are ready for a fight, and a few others may feel as if they have tensed-up shoulders. But are these reactions necessary? In fact, these feelings or reactions will cause unimaginable harm to your mental and physical health. Apart from causing stress, they may cause fatigue also. You will ultimately behave in such a manner that your relationship with your family members and your colleagues will be jeopardized.

If you want to have good relationships with everyone, you have to take complete control of how you react to situations. Only if you control your feelings, you will be able to control your reactions. Experts advise that breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga may help. 

A few other experts advise that if you record your feelings and reactions in a journal, you can understand them better. This will help you focus your efforts on correcting your behaviors. In short, "observing" yourself and being aware of how you react to situations are two vital steps for improving your EQ.

2. Observe the behaviors of other people.

Apart from being conscious of how you react to various types of situations, you should observe the behaviors of other people as well. How they react to your behaviors or how they react to different situations will help you know the right behaviors. Even a casual observation of the behaviors of others will reveal to you that those with low EQ have the habit of blaming others or other external events for their failures or mistakes. This means they do not take responsibility for their mistakes. It is in view of these, you are advised to take appropriate action to learn the right behaviors.

3. Empathizing will help in improving your EQ.

Empathizing is a great trait and it is one of the best ways to improve your EQ. You have to learn to look at the other person's perspective for empathizing with him or her. It is wrong that the opinions or the outlooks of other people should be the same as yours. Every person is unique and so, the way one person looks at things will certainly be different from how another person views them. It is also wrong to thrust your opinions or perspectives on others. Just listening to the opinions of others and accepting that their views can also be right should be the approach. 

Another point that causes bickerings at homes is the obsession of some people over perfection. For example, some people think that their homes should always be neat and clean. Though cleanliness is good, having an obsession over it and insisting that others should follow rules strictly will rob the pleasure of leading a relaxed and peaceful life. In fact, such places can not be called homes at all. They will become hostels or prisons where there are laid-down rules. 

If you find that your home is not clean or tidy, there can be a number of reasons your spouse could not attend to that job. You should empathize with your spouse and instead of complaining, you can also take up the responsibility and help her or him keep the house clean. 

If you add polite ways of communicating to your trait of empathizing, it will work wonders for maintaining relationships at home. The same fact holds good at the workplace as well. In short, understanding the behaviors of others will help in diffusing many tricky situations. To be precise, embracing the trait of empathy will greatly help in improving your emotional intelligence. It will go a long way in having better relationships at home as well as in the workplace.

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