Emotional intelligence: Need of present scenario

In today's era of cut throat competition, one cannot deny the importance of soft skills. No doubt technical skills are important for a successful career but you can get an extra edge only when you know the art of people management. One cannot work in seclusion: one has to interact with a number of individuals in the course of performing one's duties. Here lies the importance of soft skills and emotional intelligence.

Companies have offered soft-skills training to employees for years. But as every battle-scarred trainer knows, these programs are typically the first to go when budgets are cut. Given a choice between funding a course on computer skills or a course on active listening, corporate bean counters more willingly sign off on the computer course. Why? Because until recently, there had been no hard evidence that soft skills make a difference.

But many companies experience indicates, a new era is dawning in Corporate world and executives are starting to talk about the importance of such things as trust, confidence, empathy, adaptability and self-control. As a result, soft-skills training is gaining new respect. What accounts for this sea change in thinking? It can be summed up in two words: emotional intelligence.

Employers do appear to be more willing to invest in soft-skills development, especially at the higher management levels. But if the employer wants to make the case for developing the EQ of employees, one must need to understand the traditional soft-skills training is just one piece of a long-term process that begins with a thorough understanding of why emotional intelligence matters and ends with a commitment to ongoing coaching and mentoring of your employee

Like it or not, emotions are an intrinsic part of our biological makeup, and every morning they march into the office with us and influence our behavior. On some level, we've always known that the ability to understand, monitor, manage and capitalize on our emotions can help us make better decisions, cope with setbacks and interact with others more effectively.