- Social skills.
- Self-awareness.
- Self-regulation.
- Empathy.
- Motivation.
While I try to emulate these skills in my personal life, they also have significant value in the workplace and boil down to a few abilities:
- Can I recognize and regulate my emotions and reactions in the workplace?
- Can I build rapport and positive relationships with other people?
- Can I empathize with others?
While it may not seem like the most important soft skill, emotional intelligence is actually considered twice as predictive of performance as IQ.
The World Economic Forum 2023 Future of Jobs Report also ranks emotional intelligence as the number one leadership skill since businesses highly prize qualities associated with emotional intelligence.
To drive the message home, here is a quote from Britt Andreatta, CEO of Brain Aware Training.
“Emotional intelligence drives all kinds of indicators you want. There’s some research that shows when you’ve got a … high emotionally intelligent organization, you see that financial performance goes up as a result,” Andreatta says.
2. Team Player Attitude
Growing up, I was always the student who would try to take charge of a group project and offer to attribute the work to the entire group.
I always thought this proved I was a strong leader and hard worker, but it only diminished my ability to work as part of a team.
As I’ve developed in my career, I’ve realized it’s impossible to be a heads-down, solo worker if I want to use my time efficiently and effectively.
By opening myself to support from and collaborating with my amazing teammates, I alleviate some of the pressure on myself and my workload, freeing me up to take on diverse opportunities.
