Don’t lose it during lockdown! These three tips can enhance your emotional intelligence.
35% of people say their mental health has suffered during the lockdown. If you’re one of those people, you’re not alone! There’s a quick way you can boost your mental health while improving your communication skill; learn more about emotional intelligence! Scottsdale-based TTI Success Insights has a few ways you can improve your emotional intelligence today.
Use the Clear Glass Concept
Talking about your emotions can be hard, especially during a crisis situation. Use the ‘clear glass concept’ to quickly communicate your emotional state to your co-workers and loved ones.
• A clear glass means you are calm and not feeling any extreme emotions.
• A cloudy glass means you are starting to feel more moderate emotions and might need some time to return to a calmer state of mind.
• A red glass means you are feeling elevated emotions and don’t want others to take it personally or make any assumptions about you.
Communicating while you have a red glass is difficult, but sharing ‘the state of your glass’ de-escalates the situation and lets others know how you are feeling in the moment without judgement. This concept helps you get a quick pulse on your emotional state and share that with others in a low judgement, effective way. There are so many stressful situations each person is dealing with right now. Those situations are affecting how we behave at work, whether we want it to or not. By sharing the status of your glass, you can give your team a heads-up about your capacity and experience in that moment.
Master Active Listening
Active listening is more important than ever, especially when communicating over webcams and phone calls. TTI Success Insights recently shared this resource about adapting your communication in response to COVID-19 and the key is active listening!
Make sure you are nodding, making eye contact and expressing interest through your facial expressions. You actually have an advantage here that you didn’t have in the office; you can see your facial expressions in your own camera! Use this time to observe yourself and see how to improve your visual cues.
Feel your Feelings
Suppressing your feelings is counterproductive to your long term health. Every person is affected right now, but that doesn’t lessen your individual experiences
The key to emotional intelligence is awareness. Keep internal tabs on your thoughts, feelings and moods. When sadness and fear overwhelm you, give yourself some time to experience those feelings. Setting a time aside in your day to read news is a good idea if you find yourself constantly fixating. Allow yourself to be afraid, but don’t let that fear get in your way.
Extend Empathy
As you become more aware of your own emotions and experiences, you will become more aware of the emotions of those around you. This increased empathy is a huge benefit to your remote work practices.
The ‘clear glass concept’ helps with this as well. You can use it to check on your team; just make sure to respect their status if they communicate that they have a cloudy glass or clear glass.
By improving your emotional intelligence, you can help your team transition, expand your empathy and become a better listener. Emotional intelligence is going to be more important than ever in the new, modern workplace. Just remember, we’re all in it together!
Jaime Faulkner is the content manager for TTI Success Insights. She has previously worked as an editor for Nexa, the Superstition Review, Four Chambers Press, and the Mesa Legend, and is a graduate of the Hugh Downes School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.
