How can you overcome emotional intelligence blind spots?

1 What are EQ blind spots?

EQ blind spots are gaps or biases in your self-awareness and self-regulation that prevent you from recognizing and responding to your own and others' emotional needs and signals. For example, you may be unaware of how your tone, words, or actions affect others, or you may overestimate or underestimate your own or others' emotional strengths and weaknesses. EQ blind spots can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, low morale, and poor performance in virtual teams, especially if they are not addressed or corrected.

2 How to identify your EQ blind spots?

The first step to overcome your EQ blind spots is to identify them. You can do this by taking an EQ assessment, such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) or the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), which measure your abilities and competencies in four domains: perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions. These assessments can help you discover your EQ strengths and areas for improvement, as well as compare your self-rating with the feedback from others. You can also ask for honest and constructive feedback from your virtual team members, peers, managers, or mentors, and listen to their perspectives and suggestions.

3 How to overcome your EQ blind spots?

Once you have identified your EQ blind spots, you can work on overcoming them by developing your EQ skills and habits. To do this, you can practice mindfulness, seek feedback from your peers, managers, or mentors, learn from others by observing and modeling their behaviors, and experiment and reflect on your successes and failures. Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment without judgment or distraction. It can help you become more aware of your own and others' emotions, thoughts, and sensations, and reduce stress and negative reactions. You can also give feedback to others and express appreciation or constructive criticism. Learning from others can help you broaden your perspective, understand different emotions and cultures, and improve your empathy and social skills. Experimenting and reflecting can help you test and improve your EQ skills and habits, as well as evaluate your progress and challenges.

4 How to leverage your EQ strengths?

Overcoming your EQ blind spots doesn't require a change of personality or emotions; it means that you have to balance and enhance your EQ strengths and weaknesses, and adapt them to different situations and people. You can leverage your EQ strengths by aligning them with your values and goals, applying them to your work and relationships, and sharing them with others. Your EQ strengths can help you pursue your values and goals in both personal and professional life, perform better, build stronger relationships, create a positive culture in virtual teams, mentor or coach others, recognize or appreciate others' EQ strengths. All these actions can benefit not only yourself but also those around you.

5 How to maintain your EQ skills?

Overcoming your EQ blind spots and leveraging your EQ strengths are not one-time events, but ongoing processes requiring continuous practice and improvement. To maintain your EQ skills, you should seek feedback from virtual team members, peers, managers, or mentors. Learning from others by observing and modeling their EQ skills and behaviors is also beneficial. Experimenting and reflecting frequently by trying new or different ways of expressing, using, understanding, or managing emotions can help you maintain and enhance your EQ skills. Reflection involves reviewing your actions and outcomes, evaluating your progress and challenges, and setting goals and action plans for further improvement.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?