What's Your EQ? How to Foster an Emotionally Intelligent Culture

culled from:americanexpress.com

• Emotional Awareness: You understand the emotions you’re feeling and how those emotions affect your behavior and performance.
• Accurate Self-Assessment: You are aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, you’re open to feedback and you learn from experience.
• Political Awareness: You are aware of important formal and informal relationships, who's friends with whom, and how things actually get done.
• Influence: You are skilled at gaining consensus and drumming up support for your projects. You challenge the status quo and enlist others to help.
• Communication: You are able to read between the lines when conversing with others, speak in a straightforward manner and seek mutual understanding.
• Conflict Management: You address problematic situations proactively, bringing them to light with tact. You encourage open discussion and help to orchestrate mutually beneficial solutions.

There are more where these came from—so many more that it seems like there’s an awful lot involved in being emotionally intelligent. However, as you might gather from this short list, a lot of qualities go hand in hand. Professionals who have strong political awareness, for example, are often good at internal persuasion and conflict management.

Building High EQ Teams

While much has been written about how an individual can hone his or her own emotional intelligence, there's precious little on how leaders can inspire an emotionally intelligent culture. But as organizations grow, this only becomes more essential.
I recently read the recommendations by Martyn Newman, consulting psychologist and author of Emotional Capitalists–The New Leaders, on the Enviable Workplace Blog. Here are four of his recommendations to foster a higher EQ in your workplace culture.
1. Model compassion. Develop people so they are able to listen carefully to input and recognize the emotions that direct the behavior of others, getting more out of every workplace interaction and relationship.
2. Make “being yourself” safe. Show your team that it’s more important to be completely engaged and committed than to always be admired by others. Encourage colleagues to cultivate genuine self-awareness of mistakes and flaws and to be open to receiving constructive feedback.