Emotional Intelligence in Your Job Search
Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence
Personal Competence: How we manage ourselves
Self-awareness:
Deep understanding of one’s emotions, realistic, neither overly self-critical nor naively hopeful.
- Seek feedback, and acknowledge your capabilities and limitations.
- Journal your emotional highs and lows.
- Reflect on accomplishments and skills to achieve them.
- Be curious, and ask questions to learn.
| Journaling–whether as a stream of consciousness or on a specific topic–can enable us to make sense of trauma, improve our immune system and moods, and help us sleep better. Daniel Goleman |
Self-management
An ongoing inner conversation.
- Watch and listen to others’ emotional tone and non-verbal language.
- Ask others for their opinions before making a judgment or giving your perspective.
- Give others your full attention, and reflect on their words and feelings.
- Get out of your comfort zone.
| On a good day, 80% of us are lying to ourselves about whether we are lying to ourselves. Dr. Tasha Eurich |
Social Competence: How we manage relationships
Social awareness
Being attuned to how others feel in the moment.
- When emotions start to rise, pause and take a moment before responding.
- Take an active interest, read the currents, and understand different perspectives.
- Get organized, and take time to plan ahead.
- Listen to your own self-talk. If negative, rephrase to be more positive.
| Would You Hire You? |
Relationship management
Handling other people’s emotions and reactions.
- Take time to learn what is important to and motivates others.
- Display a wide range of tactics for persuading others.
- Cultivate a web of diverse relationships.
- Work to resolve disagreements and enhance relationships.
| “Executive presence” is a vague term–its definition can vary greatly from person to person. Yet we can develop traits that contribute to an executive presence, including authenticity and empathy, with strengths in emotional intelligence. Daniel Goleman |
Reading Resources
- Emotional Life of Your Brain, R. Davidson & S. Begley
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0, T. Bradberry (Includes a self-assessment)
- Insight: The Power of Self-Awareness, T. Eurich
- Taming Your Gremlin, R. Carlson
- The Brain and Emotional Intelligence, D. Goleman
- To Sell is Human, D. Pink
Web Resources
- Eiconsortium.org
- Dan Siegel: Mindsight
- Jon Kabat-Zinn: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (Books, Videos, and App)
- Harvard Business Review (Three free a month)
- Emotional Agility, S. David & C. Congleton
- Learning to Learn, E. Anderson
- Inc.com
- Why You Should Hire for Emotional Intelligence
- Why You Need Emotional Intelligence to Succeed
- Key Step Media
- Ted Talks: Five Ted Talks to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
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