Top 5 EQ Traits and How to Improve Them

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a set of skills that enables you to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions while also being able to understand and influence the emotions of others. I know of no jobs where you will not have to work with other people at least occasionally, so it is important to continually hone your EQ!

Here are five key EQ traits and some ways to work on them:

• Self-Awareness: The ability to recognize and understand your own emotions
  • How to Improve:
    • Practice self-reflection: think about your actions and along with that, how your own actions may affect those around you. If you think you are always correct, is that really accurate?
    • Keep a journal to track your emotions and reactions, noting specific patterns in how you experience your environment. Do you tend to become less polite when you are facing a deadline? What can you do to work on this negative behavior?
    • Seek feedback from others about your behavior and emotional impact; be open to hearing criticism and take it as a guidepost for improvement.
• Self-Regulation: The ability to manage and control your own emotions and reactions
  • How to Improve:
    • Develop stress-management techniques, such as deep breathing or meditation. Or, redirect negative energy: if you are upset at something, perhaps a 20 minute run outdoors can help you burn off that negative emotion, while also giving you time away from the situation!
    • Pause and think before reacting to a situation - not only with people in real life, but in your text or email replies!
    • Identify triggers that lead to negative emotions and work on managing them (see self awareness journaling improvement suggestion above).
• Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of others
  • How to Improve:
    • Actively listen to others without judgment, recognizing we all come from different experiences and values.
    • Put yourself in other people’s shoes and consider their perspective; if you cannot understand, ask them why they feel the way they do — learn from them directly.
    • Practice compassion and try to understand the emotions behind others’ actions.
• Social Skills: The ability to navigate social situations effectively and build positive relationships
  • How to Improve:
    • Develop good communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal. Also, in our tech savvy world, know how to communicate effectively online: remember, an email is not a text…and a text to a friend is not the same as a text to a coworker.
    • Work on conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
    • Build and maintain strong, positive relationships with colleagues and friends.
• Motivation: The ability to motivate oneself and others to achieve goal
  • How to Improve:
    • Set clear and achievable goals for yourself; I find daily to-do list, where I can cross of what I’ve accomplished for the day, really adds to my sense of accomplishment and achievement.
    • Find intrinsic motivation by connecting tasks to personal values. While you are using theFrogHire.ai extension to support your job search, ask yourself why working on your job search a little each day is valuable to you—is it for a greater challenge, a new experience, or just a moment to find something that suits you more?
    • Encourage and inspire others by recognizing and celebrating their achievements.

TLDR: Improving your EQ is an ongoing process that involves self-reflection, practice, and a willingness to learn from experiences. EQ is about understanding and managing emotions/behaviors effectively for better interpersonal relationships and personal well-being, which does not always come easily, especially in moments of stress. Continual practice and self reflection is key!