Why your Emotional Intelligence matters

It’s a scientific fact that emotions precede thought. When our emotions are charged, they change the way our brains function and reduce our cognitive abilities, cloud our decision-making powers, and even disrupt our interpersonal skills. So understanding and managing our emotions helps us to be more successful in both our professional and personal lives.

People who are able to maintain an even emotional demeanour at work are emotionally intelligent. They have the capacity to keep their feelings in check, despite whatever is being thrown at them -literally and figuratively! So having emotional intelligence is a distinct advantage in the workplace as it can help us to:

• Resolve conflict,
• Mentor and motivate others,
• Nurture a culture of collaboration,
• Maintain psychological safety within teams.

How Does Emotional Intelligence Benefit your Career

Companies want to hire emotionally intelligent people but doing so is a challenge. Unlike skills and work experience, it is hard to screen for a person’s ability to manage their feelings. Some candidate questions are designed to reveal what you might have learned from a negative experiences and how you moved on, for example, “What didn’t you like about your last job?” or “Tell me about a problem you faced and how you resolved it”.  The other side of the recruitment coin is that, as a candidate, it is a distinct advantage for you to have a clear, rational and quantifiable insight to your own emotional intelligence. The challenge is that until recently there have been few if any reliable means of measurement.

Now PeopleHawk has addressed this issue in a rigorous and science-based fashion with its Personality Quiz. This online test assesses the widely accredited Big 5 personality factors (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability) and adds in the one leading employers most look for, but struggle to measure – Emotional Intelligence. 

Why not take our free 10 minute personality quiz now?  As well as giving you insights to your personality traits and work style, it will help you to build awareness and understanding of your ability to perceive, understand and manage your emotions. Understanding the emotions that drive your behaviour helps you to appreciate the impact that behaviour has on other people and their subsequent response.

Remember – personality profiling isn’t about highlighting the ideal, or distinguishing what’s right from wrong. It’s about identifying and understanding the behaviours that come naturally to you. It’s an invaluable starting point towards getting the best out of yourself. Try PeopleHawk today to find out more.