Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor your emotions and comprehend others' feelings in all types of situations. It enables you to reduce stress and conflict and improve the team's productivity.

If you're looking to get ahead in your career, then this is the skill you must master. Let's look at the top ten ways you can use to increase your emotional intelligence.

1. Use Assertive Communication Style

Assertive communication style is communicating with others so that you show respect for their opinions without letting them step over your own rights, needs, and personal boundaries.

It helps you speak up for yourself without creating any interpersonal conflicts or tension among the team members.

Tips to Help You Be an Assertive Communicator

• Have a good understanding of yourself, your inherent worth, and your value to the organization.
• Keep direct eye contact while speaking. It shows you're strong and confident and not intimidated by their criticism.
• Stand with strength, yet a bit casually. Avoid standing rigid or slouching.
• Talk in a firm voice, but do not raise it.
• Keep your facial expressions neutral and convey your message with clarity.

2. Respond Instead of Reacting

When you make a decision without considering its consequences, you're reacting. On the other hand, when you pause for a second, take a quick analysis of the situation, and act consciously, you're responding.

Impulsive decisions in a situation of conflict can lead to bigger problems in your career. So think of the resolution each time you're in such a situation and make a conscious choice.

Tips to Be Responsive Instead of Reactive

• It's a skill that comes with practice, so train yourself to be responsive by confronting little things regularly.
• Always consider your overall goal before making any decision.
• Stay mindful of your thoughts and everything that's going on around you.
• Balance your emotions with facts.
• Avoid taking instant actions.
• Consider the consequences in your head.

3. Improve Your Active Listening Skills

The third skill that can increase your emotional intelligence is listening actively.

It's always about listening to understand what other people want to convey without interpreting anything yourself. Emotionally intelligent people make sure there's no misunderstanding created because of negligence.

Tips for Listening Actively

• Pay attention to the body language and facial expression of the person speaking for better clarity.
• Maintain proper eye contact.
• Make sure to nod or smile to show you're actually listening.
• Repeat what you have understood once they're done. This act helps you avoid any misunderstanding and shows respect for the person you're talking to.

4. Stay Motivated

One of the best qualities of emotionally intelligent people is that they stay motivated and motivate others with their positive attitude.

However, the sources of their motivation are rarely fame, money, or recognition. They're passionate about fulfilling their goals and inner needs.

Apps to Help You Stay Motivated

1. ThinkUp: Positive Affirmation

The app helps you to keep a positive mindset for everyday needs and encouragement. You can use it for self-talk and reduce your negative thoughts.

Download: ThinkUp for Android | iOS (Free)

2. Fabulous Self Care

This app is mainly focused on building good habits. It provides you with an extensive library of quotes to stay motivated. Plus, it has an integrated health session for meditation.

Download: Fabulous Self Care for Android (Free)

5. Practice Positive Attitude

Keeping a positive attitude is not only about yourself, but staying aware of others' moods as well.

When you're aware of the other person's habits and mood, you can prevent them from infesting your state of mind and keep things professional.

Tools to Help You Practice Positive Thinking

1. Live Happy:

The app helps you focus on being grateful. It brings more positive energy to you through specific activities on optimism. All the activities listed in the app are backed up by research.

Download: Live Happy for Android (Free)

2. Happify

This website has numerous activities and games that work by changing your thought patterns. It helps you become more optimistic and happier.

6. Practice Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is understanding your moods, patterns, behavior and knowing what you think and feel.

Emotionally intelligent people have these things clear. They understand their psychology, so they know how their emotions affect other people.

Tips to Improve Self-Awareness

• Clarify your values, know what satisfies you and what your goals are.
• Understand what you dislike in others. The chances are you have this trait in yourself, and it bothers you to see it. Once you've identified the attribute, change it.
• Practice mindfulness meditation. It helps you monitor your thought patterns.

7. Learn to Take Criticism Well

It can be challenging for people to take criticism without being defensive or offended. But emotionally intelligent people do it all the time. Their secret is simple, instead of reacting to the situation, they respond.

They take a few moments to understand where it's coming from and how it can affect their future performance. They see it with a long-term sight and find a way to resolve the issue constructively.

Tips to Take Criticism Well

• Avoid answering instantly. Pause for a second and give your brain a few moments to process the situation.
• Remind yourself; feedback is to improve your own performance.
• Practice active listening here and avoid interpreting things yourself.
• Ask them questions if they're vague--for instance, your last week's report was terrible. Ask what was the actual problem in that for better clarity.
• Thank them.

8. Practice Empathy

Empathy is when you understand others' feelings and look at things from their point of view. Emotionally intelligent people have compassion, and they know that having empathy for others is a sign of strength, not weakness.

When you have empathy, it becomes easier to handle people of different opinions while maintaining mutual respect.

Tips to Develop Empathy

• Recognize your similarities with people by talking to them and knowing more about their lives.
• Donate often.
• Observe and examine your biases.
• Talk to people you naturally don't connect with.
• Forgive and apologize often.

9. Learn and Practice Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are not only for leaders. They're for anyone willing to take the initiative, make wise decisions, and have problem-solving abilities.

Emotionally intelligent people deliberately practice these traits, so they come to them readily when required.

Tips for Practicing Leadership Skills

• Determine your dominating emotion in most situations accurately.
• Take responsibility for how you treat others.
• Never take any feedback personally.
• Observe how you feel about work, situations, and your colleagues.
• Be sociable.
• Avoid complaining.

10. Improve Your Social Skills

Another great trait of emotionally intelligent people is they're approachable. They come over to you smiling and communicate with you effectively. It comes naturally to some people. However, others may find it challenging to do.

If you're in the second group of people, you'll be glad to know that this is something you can learn to do with practice and time.

Tips to Improve Social Skills

• Consciously interact with others.
• Talk to more people.
• Enter new conversations, even if you find it difficult to do it. After a few encounters, it'll start coming naturally to you.
• Ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation going.
• Stay updated about your industry or new facts, so you always have something to contribute to the conversation.

Improve Your Emotional Intelligence to Succeed

Developing emotional intelligence can be difficult. But it's a beautiful trait that can help you go miles and achieve more with just what you have.

For better results, try taking things slowly and practicing one trait at a time.