AIIP24 Symposium Session Recap: Emotional Intelligence for Info-Entrepreneurs
Emotional intelligence is the single most important influencing variable in personal achievement, career success, leadership, and life satisfaction. – Nelson & Low, 2011; opening slide of June Boyle’s AIIP 24 Symposium session, Emotional Intelligence for Info-Entrepreneurs.
Emotional Intelligence (EI), the ability to recognize and manage one’s own emotions and engage with the emotions of others, is a valuable info-entrepreneur competency that can be actively developed.
By cultivating EI, info-entrepreneurs can:
- Improve personal relationships/client relationships;
- Improve networking skills;
- Improve communication;
- Better prepare for change readiness, including using AI;
- Increase resilience.
Four Core Components of EI
Understanding EI is foundational to becoming more in tune with your emotions and the emotions of those around you, and such understanding is a key step in leveraging the benefits EI can bring to your business acumen.
EI includes personal and social competencies and consists of four core components:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
Self-awareness can be thought of “what I see” and relates to the ability to accurately perceive and be aware of your emotions. Self-management can be thought of “what I do” and aligns with the ability to use awareness of your emotions to be flexible and positively manage your behavior.
Social awareness is also “what I see” and relates to the ability to accurately perceive the emotions of other people (think “read the room”). Relationship management is the ability to positively manage interactions by using your awareness of the collective emotions of yourself and others.
June emphasized that you can “train your brain” to increase your skills in these areas; EI is not a static trait. With a little self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management, EI skills can be improved.
Strategies to Train Your Brain for Improved EI
June shared a wealth of information and resources to begin your journey toward better EI, with attendees adding in some of their own suggestions.
Step 1: Begin with an EI assessment. Tools include:
- Free: Truity
- $$: TalentSmartEQ
Step 2: Based on your assessment, start with one area you need to work on, perhaps one that is most integral to the type of work you do and/or your work relationships, and identify some strategies you want to make part of your routine.
- EI Self-Awareness Strategies: Lean into your discomfort, know what pushes your buttons, keep an emotions journal, be aware of your emotions while under stress, and spot your emotions in books, movies, and music. Don’t judge your emotions; observe their ripple effect, pause, and don’t be fooled by a good or bad mood.
- EI Self-Management Strategies: Use breath and visualization techniques and self-care such as getting a good night’s sleep, taking time to recharge, smiling and laughing more often, engaging in problem solving (perhaps with someone not invested in the problem), and sharing your goals.
- EI Social Awareness Strategies: Greet people by name, observe people and their body language, listen actively, be aware of timing when engaging others, ask empathetic questions, and have some general “back pocket questions” ready to overcome awkward pauses and to show interest in others.
- EI Relationship Management Strategies: Take feedback well, make feedback direct and constructive, explain your decisions, be open/have an open-door policy, acknowledge others’ feelings, and don’t hesitate to tackle a tough conversation.
Step 3: Create an action plan with goals and milestones.
Step 4: Identify someone with whom you can meet regularly to review your progress.
Dive in and Grow! For the info-entrepreneur, EI growth and awareness are well worth investing in for yourself and your clients as they will enhance your resilience in an ever-changing environment.
The full set of slides from June Boyle’s session is available to AIIP24 Symposium attendees at the conference site on Whova.
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