How teens can increase their ability to be emotionally intelligent?
Being emotionally intelligent is the ability to identify, understand, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. More and more, businesses are relying on references and personality assessments to measure a potential employee’s emotional intelligence, instead of just focusing on what school they attended, their grades, or their interview skills. Someone with a high emotional intelligence stands out from the crowd. They have the ability to work well with others, accept and adapt to change, build strong relationships, make good decisions, deal with difficult situations, control impulses, solve problems, and communicate clearly.
Studies show that teens with high emotional intelligence are more productive in the workplace, have better career advancement, are more effective leaders, and have better work relationships. FCCLA leadership roles and the National FCCLA Student Body program can help you develop your skills.
As with all personality traits, some people have naturally good emotional intelligence, while others need to work on them. The good news is that everyone can get better! Emotional intelligence is something that develops as we mature. The best way to develop emotional intelligence is to practice the five skills of emotional intelligence:
Self-Awareness, the ability to identify your own emotions and recognize their impact and being able to notice and accurately label everyday feelings; Emotional Management, the ability to control our reaction to our feelings and/or use our feelings to guide decisions and knowing when, where and how to most effectively express our feelings; Empathy, the ability to recognize others’ emotions and accurately interpret their verbal and nonverbal cues and helps the individual know appropriate things to say and ways to behave around someone who is feeling strong emotions; Choosing Your Mood, recognizing that moods are something we can control, deciding which mood is right for specific situations, and getting ourselves into an appropriate mood; and Conflict Management, the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while successfully avoiding or managing conflict and it involves handling social interaction appropriately.
Written by Abigail Allen, MN FCCLA State Secretary