How To Use Emotional Intelligence To Handle Work Stress

If you are anything like me, starting a new job is exciting and energizing. There is that sense of pride that you feel about landing the job. Many of us view a new job as a step forward in our careers. We may be looking forward to a bigger paycheck, promotions, professional development and new challenges that are accompanied by recognition once goals are achieved.

Fast forward several years. Now you have been in the position for some time and you have not landed those promotions; you dread the daily grind and the never-ending meetings; you don’t even like most of your colleagues that much but you have learned to get along with them or simply avoid them. The job is no longer exciting and everything has become redundant. You also feel like you are being asked to do more work with fewer resources. As the stress grows, your job may make you feel frustrated and disengaged.

Starting a new job or staying in a job where you are unhappy can easily put you in a position where your ability to manage your emotions is put to the test. Once you have been in the job for a period of time, the stressors don’t go away; they just change.

In fact, recent research and surveys have shown that stress is the number one reason why people leave their jobs.

With all this in perspective, how then can you use Emotional intelligence to handle stress and thrive well at work? Keep reading to understand;

Understand your emotions

Start by focusing on the first pillar of EQ, which is self-awareness, and learn to be aware of and understand your emotions.

What emotions do you currently feel about your work or your colleagues? How do these emotions affect the people around you? Are you letting negative emotions affect the way you interact with colleagues or perform your work?

Becoming more aware of these factors is vital to improving emotional intelligence. A simple tool to get started is to name the emotions you feel as they arise. This helps you recognize them again in the future and begin to track where they affect your behavior.

Get feedback

Understanding your emotions on your own can be difficult. When it comes to self-analysis, we often have blind spots and struggle to see things in ourselves that would be easy to identify in others.

To overcome this and ensure you aren’t biased in your findings, ask for a second opinion. It could be your boss, colleague, friend, or family, anyone who knows you well and can provide helpful information regarding your response to different situations depending on your mood or emotional state.

Respond don’t react

When disagreements or conflicts occur in the workplace, many people are prone to emotional outbursts or venting their displeasure.

Emotionally intelligent people learn to stay calm during stressful situations. Instead of reacting impulsively, they take a second to understand their emotions and respond in a calm manner that gets them closer to a resolution rather than making the situation worse.

Active listening

Listening and paying attention to nonverbal cues is vital to developing emotional intelligence. Waiting for your turn to speak without taking the time to understand your colleague’s point of view is a quick way to cause issues in the workplace.

Active listening helps prevent misunderstandings, shows the proper respect to the person speaking, and gives you the best chance of responding appropriately. It is also an excellent starting point for you improve your communication skills.

Practice

Unfortunately, emotional intelligence is not simple. It is also not one single thing. Instead, it is an array of skills that require continual practice. Therefore, to truly develop your EI and equip yourself with skills to handle your feelings, you need continual training. EQ requires a high degree of self-analysis, which often means acting differently from your first instinct.

What next;

Learning how to manage your emotions will not only help you process your emotions but it also makes work less stressful. Thriving in a positive work environment helps you achieve your goals and also enables you to grow and develop your career.

If you want the tools to help you master your emotional intelligence (EQ), then this course is for you, sign up today!