Understanding emotional intelligence has become an essential skill for both employees and management across the whole range of industries. This CPD article will define emotional intelligence and educate on how this can benefit people in a professional setting. It will elaborate the key areas of what is emotional intelligence, how does an awareness of emotional intelligence help in the workplace across all roles, and what do you learn in an emotional intelligence course.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence, sometimes known as “emotional quotient” or “EQ”, is defined as perceiving, managing, and understanding emotions. When it comes to happiness and success in life, EQ matters just as much as IQ. With emotional intelligence you have the potential to build stronger relationships, and achieve your goals.
First published in in a paper by Michael Beldoch in 1964, but becoming popular after Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ.”, emotional intelligence has seen its popularity explode, with its benefits within the business world becoming more recognised and valued.
According to its founders, Emotional intelligence usually has five components in it:
- Self-awareness – the knowledge of what we feel and why we feel so
- Self-regulation – the ability to express our feelings in the right way
- Motivation – the internal drive to change the way we feel and express
- Empathy – the ability to relate to others’ emotions and see the world from their perspective
- Social skills – the power to communicate effectively and build strong connections at home or in the workplace.
How does an awareness of emotional intelligence help in the workplace across all roles?
Emotional intelligence in the workplace should shape the way in which employees can understand, use, and manage their own emotions in positive ways. This could involve methods to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict, which can prove invaluable in a workplace environment.
For those in management positons, emotional intelligence is essential to conflict management in the workplace. This could involve having the ability to help others through tense situations, tactfully bringing disagreements into the open, and defining solutions that everyone can endorse. Leaders who take the time to understand different perspectives, can more effectively work toward establishing a middle ground in disagreements.
What do you learn from an emotional intelligence course?
A quality emotional intelligence course with a workplace focus will aim to teach you:
- Organisational skills – and managing schedules more efficiently
- Communication skills and the power to comprehend nonverbal cues of interaction (for example body language, facial expression, the tone of words, etc.)
- Work motivation and the power to accept feedback and criticism positively
- Group performance, especially at the workplace and maintaining a high team spirit
- Leadership skills.
Where to find an emotional intelligence CPD course?
With over 25 years’ experience, The CPD Certification Service are the largest and leading CPD accreditation provider working across all industry sectors. Our Course Catalogue has thousands of CPD training courses, workshops and seminars available, including a number on emotional intelligence, which you can find here.
CPD accreditation for emotional intelligence courses
We hope this article was helpful. If you offer emotional intelligence courses and are considering becoming a CPD accredited training provider, please contact our team to discuss in more detail. Alternatively if you are looking to manage, track and log your ongoing Continuing Professional Development in one simple place, please go to the myCPD Portal page.
