How do you use emotional intelligence to make better decisions?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is a key skill for making good decisions, as it allows you to: Stay calm and rational under pressure. Consider all sides of an issue before making a choice. Build rapport with others and get buy-in for your decisions. Navigate difficult conversations and conflicts effectively. The more aware we are about ourselves the better our EI would be. So, dedicate some time to understand self and practice mindfulness and see how your decision making improves.

My view on this is that it's important to try to find win-win solutions to problems and conflicts. However don't ever allow the counter part to violate or take advantage of your goal to find a diplomatic solution. Your EI ability shouldn't overshadow your core values and goals allowing people with less EI ability walk all over you. Define your deal breaker limits and stand your ground on them.

In my experiences EI played a vital role in distinguishing logical vs emotionally driven decisions, yes very helpful in both personal & professional world

Emotional Intelligence is the bedrock of sensitive decision-making. It includes the ability to perceive, comprehend, and manage our own emotions as well as those of others. This is extremely important in decision-making because it allows us to negotiate complex situations with empathy, generating deeper connections and effective communication. Furthermore, Using Emotional Intelligence not only improves the quality of my decisions, but it also transforms them into deliberate acts that resonate on both personal and professional levels. Emotional Intelligence enables us to lead with empathy, adaptability, and resilience, resulting in decisions that are authentic and result in beneficial consequences.

Especially when you are at a leadership level, EI plays a vital role. How do we use EI? 1. The first step is that the purpose and the larger objective should be clear. When these are clear it becomes easier to share empathy and generate action items. 2. When the workplace has data driven approach, it becomes easier to separate out facts and opinion and this results in conscious decision making. 3. Breakdown of larger objectives helps in having detailed focus for short term goals which again helps in conscious decision making.

Emotional Intelligence development begins with self-awareness and a commitment to progress. Begin by considering your emotional reactions to various events, including achievements and challenges. Seek feedback on your interpersonal interactions from reliable coworkers or mentors. Practice mindfulness to become more aware of your emotions in real time. After you've identified areas for growth, engage in a journey of continual learning, which includes reading books, taking workshops, and engaging in self-reflection exercises. Remember that developing your Emotional Intelligence is a lifelong endeavor, and that doing so will help you make better decisions and foster deeper relationships in both your personal and professional life.

I believe Self Awareness is highly important. What is important to me night not be important to others and vise versa For example, feeling safe and secure is highly important to me. This becomes the rules of engagement with others. Having boundaries and agreeing on deal breakers are essentials in managing relationships with others. Having non violent communications and continuous negotiation is also mandatory. Conflicts are acceptable only when they support induviduals' growth and improve the quality of relationship. Moreover, before making a decision I think about the consequences for all parties involved. Is my decision safe for me and others? If yes, I will proceed to the next criteria in making decision.

With my career background we were expected to push through whatever task was given, no matter how you felt, it was somewhat robotic. Then if you had thoughts or feeling about what you just did, it was almost taboo to talk about it. Changing career paths, I have learned that emotion has the potential to control the majority of decisions that are made. Having control of your own thoughts and emotions will serve us well, however, keeping this in mind will also help us understand how others make decisions. Understanding how we can use EI to our benefit not just for ourselves but for others also will help leaders and managers be the best they can be and support those they lead and manage.

A tool I've found helpful in getting to the root cause of my emotions is from "Crucial Conversations" to ask yourself what you saw and heard, what story you told yourself about what you observed, and how that made you feel. Getting back to the facts of what happened can help me identify what additional information I'm bringing to the situation and check in on my emotions, perspectives, and biases.

Being aware of self and especially the emotional impulses and defenses at play is to my experience critically important in decision making. The challenge I often see however, is that people and organizations tend to simplify how complex these drives of behavior are. They are to a large extend subconscious and though we can uncover and understand some hidden dynamics new ones will arise... So my experience is that we need to explore and learn together - so our blind spots can be challenged constructively by others. I have experienced how creating a shared language and a shared reference framework can assist in changing the dialogue to become more conscious about these hidden drives and then be able to act on them. But we cannot do it alone.

In my understanding, we should pave the way to reason and clarity by refining our capacity to control our feelings and impulses. We develop a mental space that enables us to analyze choices without being unduly influenced by fleeting emotions through practices like mindfulness and stress reduction methods. In order to make well-informed decisions, self-management also entails acknowledging our limitations and asking for help when necessary. Instead of stifling feelings, one should learn to harness them positively. As we incorporate self-management into our arsenal for making decisions, we empower ourselves to handle complexity with poise and discernment, leading to outcomes that are in line with our long-term goals.

In my experience allowing feelings and impulses to be there is critical - however self-management allows us to find common ground in the best interest of the group and organization. Feeling and impulses - as well as defenses which is a mayor player in self-management - are all in place to protect and guide the self. I experience self-management as the compromise that will allow us to move forward in a shared direction. However in practice self-management can be very hard as patterns of behaviors are often rooted in the past and outside our concious mind - so its not about discipline unlike what many people think - it is also about gaining insights (with others) into the hidden and reorganize e.g. emotions and defenses - not easy at all.

As a leader, emotional intelligence skills are invaluable to effectively support your teams and guide them through different situations. Social awareness helps you to take in others’ perspectives or feelings. Actively listening, asking for feedback and recognizing non-verbal cues help you make informed decisions while keeping teams’ interests in mind.

You might also consider one vital step: read the room. Is it a good time to make that announcement? Is your group in a serious or jolly mood? This is especially helpful when you just have to share that joke you just heard. You might want to put it off until later.

At the end of the day an organization is here for a purpose and only the collective can deliver on that mission and vision. If the task is to be solved in the collective understanding its parts is critical. Social awareness is great and needed - however I experience that even people with high social awareness don't see and/or forget that collective defenses are a play in organizational life driving the collective behavior away from the mission. So I would argue that effective social awareness should extend to understanding the hidden basic assumption of the organization (in addition to the individuals). Uncovering those however can be very tricky when you are part of the system yourself - thus Systems Psychodynamic consultancy will help.

For me inclusion and transparency is important here. We are in an organization to deliver on its mission and we solve the complex challenges we have in more meaningful and nuanced ways if we do it together. In my mind this should not be a discipline labelled "relationship management" - as its not in any way a management discipline. To me its a leadership discipline that seems to bring the best ideas to the table no matter title and rank which require the ability to create a psychological safe climate and having sound boundaries. So for me its about bringing people together and shaping a shared solutions in the interest of the mission, rather than to be persuasive as such as your one idea or approach for sure is not the best way to go...

The importance of EI in the organizational complexities we have today seems to be hard to neglect. However I do see a risk of attributing EI too much isolated attention. With that I wish to draw the attention that people with high EI is for sure good - however its in the interaction with other people - but also with other teams and the wider organization system (and beyond) that makes up the organizational reality. EI alone might be good but its far from a golden solution to all issues - we need to work with group dynamics and systemic dynamics at the same time (these elements combined are core components of the Systems Psychodynamic paradigm which is highly useful and relevant when discussing these matters...).