5 Emotional Intelligence Tips to Optimize Job Performance

Emotional intelligence is the ability for somebody to experience emotions at work but cycle through them and move beyond them as quickly as possible to get to a position where they can work collaboratively with others.

Claudia St. John, President at Affinity HR Group and author of the book "Transforming Teams – Tips For Improving Collaboration and Building Trust," has international experience helping large and small enterprises develop people strategies for their business success.

"The most important part of emotional intelligence is recognizing when you are entering in an emotional state like stress or anger to stop and ask yourself: Why am I feeling this way?" John suggests.

Once you recognize your feelings, you can use any of the following tools: deep breathing, thinking about a happy place, having artifacts on your desk like pictures of your children, or a memory from a great vacation. Something to slow it down to look at that emotion, understand why it is triggering you, work through it, and move on.

There are five stages to emotional intelligence: self-awareness, regulation, motivation, have empathy for what the other person is going through, and deploy your social skills to work collaboratively.

If you become aware when you are in an emotional state, what are you feeling in your body, where do you experience it physically, stop and think about it: "Okay, this person is making me mad, but I cannot do any good if I am in this emotional state." This way, you will improve your emotional intelligence exponentially.

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"Just being aware of this concept improves emotional intelligence, and that means you're going to be more productive, healthier, experience less stress, and be able to get along with others," assures the professionally-accredited HR executive.

She also points out that being open to constructive criticism is also a sign of self-confidence and gives us the advantage of learning and improving every day.

Self-awareness involves knowing our underlying values and how they allow us to be consistent in our actions and to be guided by higher principles, which over time often leads to greater levels of respect.

Someone who can regulate their mood is more likely to keep good relationships in the workplace. Motivation involves having a passion for work and a desire to raise the performance bar and achieve beyond expectations.

Empathy involves understanding other people's emotional makeup and is associated with listening to what others have to say and putting yourself in their shoes. Long-term working relationships are strengthened by empathy.

Social skills involve building rapport with people to move them in the desired direction. People with social skills can find common ground and develop emotional bonds with others.

The expert recommends using this knowledge to express and manage your own emotions, be aware of others' feelings to establish strong relationships, and use the information provided by your emotions to act appropriately in the face of daily challenges.