A well known benefit of developing high Emotional Intelligence, especially for managers, is the greater ability to engage and motivate the people they work with.  

 

Another less well known benefit of having great EQ is it can help in effective stress management, or in other words, to bring our stress to a comfortable level. This is the goal of many managers who feel that they are facing too much stress at work. 

 

But how can Emotional Intelligence help in stress management? There are three ways.

 

Our emotions are good indicators¹ of our stress level. If we are aware of our own emotions, we can identify the signs of unusually high stress earlier. Then we can take steps to relax or to control our emotions, and avoid further stress. 

 

For example, getting angry ten times in one single day at our team members, peers, or other people we interact with is most likely not a sign that they have suddenly become more annoying or incapable². It is more likely to be a sign that our level of stress has increased, and that our tolerance³ for anything that doesn't go our way has decreased. 

 

Self-management, the second dimension of Emotional Intelligence, also helps decrease our stress. Self-management is our ability to prevent the waves of our negative emotions from rising too high. An example of self-management is keeping our sadness or anger from reaching an intensity⁴ when we can not function and work normally, and when it can even be painful.

 

Such high emotional waves further escalates⁵ stress in two ways.  

 

First, stress is amplified⁶ by the feeling that we are "losing control". And then it can be accompanied by guilt…and even more stress. 

 

Secondly⁷, decisions we make during these emotional waves are usually not well-thought and usually bring us more trouble and more stress. For example, decisions we make during an episode of anger are can be expected to result to extra work to repair "collateral⁸ damages"。 

 

Social awareness⁹, the third dimension of Emotional Intelligence decreases stress by lessening¹⁰ interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. One serious conflict with one of our team members or peers can eat up a tremendous amount of our energy and result to a lot of stress. 

 

How exactly does better social awareness lead to less conflicts? Social awareness is the ability to recognize emotions in other people, and to handle them resourcefully. In situations when conflicts can easily arise, this skill is particularly useful. By identifying the emotions in our counterpart and then acknowledging these emotions, we can prevent a disagreement from turning into an open personal conflict. 

 

As a conclusion, if you are feeling that you are too stressed, I encourage you to look at how you could develop your Emotional Intelligence further.  

 

There are several other ways to bring your level of stress down, like working on your time management or the way you delegate, or using effective relaxation¹¹ techniques. But improving your Emotional Intelligence is a way you can count on.

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