You have probably encountered the phrase emotional intelligence by now, as it’s a fairly popular hot topic these days. Have you taken any of the concepts on board? Do you buy into them? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject. When it comes to career development whether going through an arduous job search, or an interview process, I advise you to bear the following factors in mind, as they as truly critical in my view:

• Emotional Awareness: You understand the emotions you’re feeling and how those emotions affect your behavior and performance.
• Accurate Self-Assessment: You are aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, you’re open to feedback, and you learn from experience.
• Self-Confidence: You present yourself with poise and are not afraid to voice unpopular viewpoints.
• Self-Control: You don’t act on impulse but instead remain composed and focused under pressure.
• Innovation and Adaptability: You uncover fresh ideas to problems.  You are flexible and handle change well.
• Achievement Drive: You constantly seek ways to improve results and hold yourself accountable for strong performance. You persist in your goal despite setbacks.
• Commitment and Initiative: You understand the organization’s core purpose and will make sacrifices in service of that. You are able to mobilize others and go above and beyond what’s expected of you.
• Understanding and Developing Others: You listen well and show sensitivity to others’ points of view. You reward people’s strengths and encourage their improvement through specific feedback and strong mentoring.
• Team Building: You create like-minded groups, model team qualities like respect and helpfulness, and share credit.
• Political Awareness: You are aware of important formal and informal relationships, who’s friends with who, and how things actually get done in the organization.
• Influence: You are skilled at gaining consensus and drumming up support for your projects. You challenge the status quo and enlist others to help implement relevant changes.
• Communication: You are able to read between the lines when conversing with others, you speak in a straight-forward manner, and you seek mutual understanding.
• Collaboration and Cooperation: You share information and resources and balance your focus on a task with attention to relationships.
• Conflict Management: You address problematic situations pro-actively, bringing them to light with tact and diplomacy. You encourage open discussion and help to orchestrate mutually beneficial solutions.

If you’d like to have a discussion around emotional intelligence or any other areas of your career development, then just drop me a line.