Emotional Intelligence In The Business World

Engaging With Real Authenticity

In any dynamic, emotions are what creates action, whether it’s within the context of a personal relationship or a sales relationship. Authenticity comes with emotionally engaging with people on a genuine level, so to create an action (like influencing a buyer to make a purchase), you must engage with them on an emotional level through being your authentic self. Pay attention to the emotions that you create in your buyer through your product, language, and intention so that you can ensure they are in alignment with what you are trying to do. Alignment is important because a customer can tell if a salesperson is aligned, or misaligned. You project how you feel about your team, the mission, the company values, the product, etc. The more deeply these are internalized as positive, the more effective you are in communicating a positive message for your clients. However, if you are not invested in what you’re doing, that will also come through and have a negative impact on sales. Engaging with real authenticity is key to closing more deals and being more successful.

Increasing Emotional Intelligence Through Self Awareness

Emotional intelligence is something that every human is capable of, but it takes work to get there. Having emotional intelligence is not just about having awareness of others, but also of yourself, and you have to start with yourself before you can have awareness of others. In order to grow awareness of yourself, do things that are self-reflective and build self-awareness. This could include journaling, creative outlets, processing with a friend or therapist, and overall becoming more in tune with yourself. The unfortunate thing about our culture today is that self-reflection and the activities that foster it are often seen as counter-intuitive. Things are more fast-paced and reactive, and there’s not time to sit down and journal. This means that you have to create a very conscious effort to develop emotional intelligence. It can be a difficult journey, but it’s a very rewarding one.

Increasing Emotional Intelligence for Leaders

If you are a leader in the business world, and you have a staff of people that you would like to assist in increasing their self-awareness and emotional intelligence, there are some specific things that you can do in order to increase the effectiveness of your impact. Many leaders might be concerned about their employees getting defensive, which is a valid fear. People don’t often like to hear “hey, you need to work on yourself,” and a direct approach is not always the most successful. Instead, try modeling self-awareness and self-exploration yourself. In this way, you show the employee what to do, instead of telling them what to do. This is not only beneficial for the salesperson on your team, but also for you.