<p>For small business owners, an important job is to constantly attract clients. It takes self discipline, self confidence, self awareness and relationships. That’s where Emotional Intelligence (EI) plays a role.</p> <p>Daniel Goleman defined EI as follows</p> <ol> <li>Self-awareness: our ability to know our own emotions and their impact to our behaviors.<br /> </li> <li>Self-management: our ability to control our emotions; especially under stress.<br /> </li> <li>Social awareness: our ability to sense, understand and react to other’s emotions.<br /> </li> <li>Relationship management: our ability to inspire, influence and develop others.</li> </ol> <p>When we were born, our EI started to be developed . It's impacted when our needs were met or not met, when our family was at peace or not at peace, when our environment was safe or not safe, etc. We perceived all of the things and people around us, learned to interpret them and cope with them, and formed the best way we knew to protect ourselves emotionally.</p> <p>Therefore, some people are very self-reliant since they felt they couldn’t trust others from a very young age. Some people can trust better since they had good experience from trusting others. Some people stay in a non-working relationship longer than they should because they didn’t learn how to set the boundary. Some people see “half cup full” and some see “half cup empty” in the same situation. Emotions (anger, anxiety, fear, shame, joy and love) drive us to do certain things or not to do certain things.</p> <p>People with high EI can grow their business better since they have good self-awareness. They know how to motivate and discipline themselves. When their emotions are triggered, they know how to manage the emotions instead of being emotional hijacked. They have clear mind to make decisions when under stress. When they are with others, they can tune in other’s experience and build report. They have self-confidence and don’t spend too much time and energy to prove to others or doubt about themselves. They have compassion about people and build good relationships easily. When they are in relationships, they know when to trust, when to lead, when to let others lead and when to resign. They create win-win in relationships.</p> <p>Are you one of them? If you are not sure, it’s time to reflect and be an observer of yourself.</p> <p>The good news is that EI can be improved through training. It takes time, practice and support.</p> <p>Only when you know where you are at with your EI, you know what area to improve upon. So, first of all, you need to know your EI by self observation or by taking an assessment. And then, you can design a plan to improve the area(s) that needs growth. It’s like to look at the mirror and decide which part of the body you want to improve and design the exercise to do it.</p> <p>When you grow your EI, your business will grow accordingly since you know how to move forward without being stopped by your emotions.</p> <p>The research on EI has exploded since the mid 1990’s and continue to grow and be refined. There are a lot of literature published.</p> <p>A few good books to read on EI are</p> <p>1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/055380491X/biznik-20">Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can matter More Than IQ</a> by Daniel Goleman</p> <p>2. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887259007/biznik-20">Learning in Relationship: Foundation for Personal and Professional Success</a> by Ronald R Short.</p> <p>3. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591391849/biznik-20">Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence</a> by Dainel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee</p> <p>4. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585422959/biznik-20">Parenting From the Inside Out</a> by Daniel Siegel</p> <p>5. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039370470X/biznik-20">The Mindful Brain</a> by Daniel Siegel</p>
2008-03-21T03:53:07Z
2008-03-23T00:29:33Z
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growing-your-business-by-growing-your-emotional-intelligence
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2008-03-23T00:28:20Z
2008-03-23T00:28:20Z
<p>Want to grow your business? Know anything about Emotional intelligence? Yes. They might be related!</p>
Growing Your Business by Growing Your Emotional Intelligence
0
2009-02-24T09:43:30Z