Emotional Effectiveness is what keeps you in balance for achieving, manifesting and reaching higher levels of performance in all areas of life.

Everyday, people dismiss the role that emotions play in the cold hard reality of today’s business as well as in our personal lives.  People’s excuses for acting irrationally come from focusing to much on feelings.  Let’s be honest – the coldest, hardest truth is that, like it or not, emotions play a major role in every area of our lives and wishing it wasn’t so accomplishes nothing. 

Emotional Effectiveness is what keeps you in balance for achieving, manifesting and reaching higher levels of performance in all areas of life.

Often you hear people refer to highly successful people as having emotional intelligence.  A term used by many leading researchers to describe a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor feelings and emotions of yourself and others and to use this information to guide your thinking and actions.  Extensive research validates that those who exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence tend to be more fulfilled and productive.

So not to confuse emotional intelligence with cognitive intelligence (IQ) – emotional intelligence is essentially non-cognitive enabling a person to create positive outcomes in relationships with others.  Whereas, cognitive intelligence has traditionally been known as a key indicator and predictor of success.   However, it is not, by itself, a good predictor – there are many examples of individuals who are exceptionally gifted, yet are remarkably ineffective and unproductive.

Many people would be the wiser to assess their emotional effectiveness before moving forward with the time and investment of opening a business.  For example:  Ones keen mechanical knowledge of computers isn’t enough to guarantee a successful business if in fact that businessperson has low ego drive and low empathy.    Far too many businesses fail and the blame more often is associated with the times, lack of working capital, low product demand, wrong location, etc. etc. – However, after studying many businesses we can find the failure of a business in the emotional effectiveness of the business owner.  The same holds true for people in sales and management.

Emotional Effectiveness – referring to specific behaviors, habits and attitudes is something you can develop for enhancing and significantly improving your capacity for success. 

Steps for you to develop higher levels of personal and business success are divided into two categories with six sub-categories each.

Categories are Personal Competencies and Social Competencies.

Under Personal Competencies the six sub-categories are:

1. Self-Awareness:  Individuals who exhibit a high degree of emotional effectiveness have a clear, conscious understanding of what is most important to them in life. This awareness continually guides them, especially in difficult of trying circumstances.


2. Confidence & Self-Esteem:  Confidence and self-esteem give us the self-assurance when we need to forge ahead to step up as leader, to take the emotional “risk” necessary for significant achievement.


3. Self-Control:  Individuals with a high degree of emotional self-control effectively manage their impulsive feelings and distressing emotions.  They stay composed, positive, and think clearly even under difficult or challenging circumstances.


4. Authenticity:  You can build trust through your own conscientiousness, owning up to your mistakes and confronting unethical actions in others.  Take trough, principled stands when necessary, even if those stands are unpopular.


5. Optimism & Resilience:  Optimism isn’t inherently better or worse than pessimism, but the actions that spring form optimism tend to produce greater results.


6. Self-Actualization:  Self-actualized individuals become involved in pursuits that lead to meaningful, rich and full lives.  They make enthusiastic commitments to their long-term goals in an ongoing, dynamic process of striving toward the maximum development of their abilities and talents.  Self-actualization is often referred to as the state of being that one can achieve after other basic needs in life have been met.

Under Social Competencies the six sub-categories are:

1. Empathy:  Developing genuine empathy with others is a hallmark of emotionally effective individuals.  This rather, you should seek to understand their feelings.


2. Spirit of Service:  A spirit of service is what causes people to go above and beyond the call of duty and give something of himself or herself beyond just doing a job or fulfilling an obligation.  People who possess a spirit of service consciously decide to choose service over self-interest.


3. Social Awareness:  Having a high level of social/political awareness means having the ability to read a group’s emotional currents and power relationship, to “de-code” the informal communication and interpersonal relationships that may not be obvious unless you are paying attention.


4. Interpersonal Influence:  Having a high level of influence with other people is a key skill that significantly enhances your emotional effectiveness.  Firs, because this ability helps you help others.  Secondly it gives you a greater sense of control over your own environment and destiny.


5. Communication:  The ability to communicate effectively in writing, one-on-one conversations and group presentations, strongly distinguishes star performers from average or below average ones.  A lack of communication skills not only has negative effect on the individual, but also tends to have a destructive effective on those who work most closely with him or her.


6. Cooperation:  One of the keys to achieving greater productivity is through collaboration and cooperation to cultivate and maintain extensive informal networks.  Proactively seek out professional and personal relationships that are mutually beneficial. Go out of your way to build rapport with others, keep them "in the loop,” and show genuine interest in helping them achieve their objectives.

Assuming you do want to change and willing to do the hard work necessary, the good news is that improving your level of emotional effectiveness is very doable. These are not traits that are “hard wired” into your nervous system.  With consistent effort, you CAN become much more emotionally effective.