Ep #50: Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

I’m very excited to be with you today for what is our 50th episode! I’ve been loving the past year of sharing my ideas and the ideas of others in the hope that we can move forward as a community of women in the property and construction industry.

Today on the podcast, I’m talking all about emotional intelligence and why it’s vital for both leaders and team members to cultivate and utilise this important skill in the workplace.

For a long time, EQ, or emotional quotient, has been seen as a touchy-feely, soft skill of sorts. However, it’s my belief that developing a strong emotional intelligence has never been more important, particularly as we see the emergence and the increasing prevalence of AI.

So what actually is EQ? Commonly referred to as emotional intelligence, it's how effectively we express emotions both in ourselves and how we recognise it in other people. To help understand where its value lies, I run through the variety of skills EQ encompasses. This includes competencies around emotion, self-awareness, empathy and communication skills.

As the saying goes, people don’t leave organisations; they leave managers. And I’m sure anyone that’s had a less-than-great manager can resonate with that. I share my own difficult experience of working under someone with a low EQ, and emphasise the need for leaders to connect with their teams in a way that retains talent and helps them thrive.

I discuss how being in tune emotionally is also important if you’re a team member. Developing skills to make others feel seen and heard can create better outcomes for everyone involved in a project and open up opportunities you may not have otherwise seen.

I truly believe that anyone can develop the skill of emotional intelligence, and that it just takes putting our innate skills of human connection into practice. I hope this episode supports you to achieve an even better standard of communication and show up in life and work as the best version of you.