You’re an entrepreneur. How can Emotional Intelligence help you connect with your team and customers?

1 What is EI and why does it matter?

EI is not just about being nice or sensitive. It is a complex set of competencies that enable you to recognize, regulate, and express your emotions, and to understand and respond to the emotions of others. EI can help you improve your decision-making, problem-solving, creativity, and resilience. It can also help you build trust, rapport, and collaboration with your team and customers. Research shows that EI is linked to higher performance, productivity, and satisfaction in the workplace, as well as lower stress, burnout, and turnover.

2 How to assess your EI level?

Before you can improve your EI, you need to know where you stand. There are various tools and tests that can help you measure your EI level, such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) or the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i). These assessments can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses in four main domains of EI: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. You can also ask for feedback from your team, your customers, or your mentors to get a more accurate and objective perspective on your EI skills.

3 How to develop your EI skills?

Once you have a clear picture of your EI level, you can start working on enhancing your EI skills. Self-awareness involves paying attention to your emotions and how they affect your thoughts, actions, and reactions. You can practice mindfulness, journaling, or meditation to become more aware of your emotional states and triggers. Self-management involves learning how to regulate your emotions and cope with stress and challenges. You can use techniques like breathing exercises, positive affirmations, or reframing to calm yourself down and change your perspective. Social awareness requires empathizing and listening actively to others. You can use skills like mirroring, paraphrasing, or asking open-ended questions to show interest and understanding. Relationship management involves communicating and collaborating effectively with others. You can use skills like assertiveness, feedback, or conflict resolution to express your opinions, needs, and expectations clearly and respectfully. Utilizing tools such as the Mood Meter, Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions, Empathy Map, Persona Canvas, Team Canvas or the Customer Journey Map can help you gain deeper insights into yourself as well as others.

4 How to apply EI in your business?

EI is not only a personal skill, but also a business strategy. It can be used to create a positive and productive culture in your organization, to improve leadership and influence, and to deliver value and satisfaction to customers. For example, EI can foster a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration by setting expectations and boundaries, providing feedback and support, and celebrating successes. It can also promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging by acknowledging different perspectives. In terms of leadership, EI can be used to model behaviors, empower and coach team members, solicit feedback, and adapt leadership styles. Finally, it can be used to understand customer needs and wants, create products or services that solve their problems or fulfill their desires, build long-term relationships with them, as well as handle customer complaints or issues.

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?