American entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the groundbreaking book “ASKGARYVEE“, Gary Vaynerchuk, says that the most critical resource for companies and most important skill for employees in today’s context, and more so for the coming era, is Emotional Intelligence.

Seems like a tall claim. After all, isn’t your company more interested in how many sales you make? Isn’t your performance determined by the revenue you earn for your boss? It really doesn’t matter what your E.Q.  (emotional quotient) is, as long as you increase the business for your employer.

Gary Vaynerchuk says, No. So does research. And they both say that increasingly, the determining factor for your employability will be your emotional intelligence.

What is emotional intelligence? And what does it have to do with your job prospects and your employability? And how can you best use emotional intelligence to advance your career?

Emotional Intelligence is the measure of a person’s ability to correctly identify and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of other people including both individuals and groups.

A Harvard Business School study conducted on 50,000 employees says it has everything to do with negativity vs. positivity in the workplace.

The data was collected to analyse employees who qualify as ‘toxic’ to the workplace and to estimate their cost to the company. Toxic employee behaviour could include being over critical, lazy, acting superior to others, indulging in gossip and so on.

It was found that these kinds of people could cost their company loss of customer base, loss of legitimacy among important stakeholders, damage employee morale and decreased turnover.

Dylan Minor, co-author of the Harvard study says, “A natural question I get from people is ‘Why would anyone hire a toxic worker? That’s crazy!’”

Well, the fact is that many hiring managers have looked the other way when dealing with prospective employees who exhibit negative behavioural patterns simply because they were more productive than the average.

Gary Vaynerchuk warns that all negativity is like cancer. Once cancer spreads it is hard to control. Similarly, once the toxic behaviour of one employee starts to affect the internal culture of a company it slows down the speed of work and takes a toll on the service and the company image.

So he suggests that companies must hire and fire not only with productivity in mind, but to also consider the EQ – the Emotional Quotient of their employees to ensure a healthy work culture.

And what implications does it have for employees? If one is not self-aware and maybe indulging in negative behavior unconsciously are they doomed for life?

The good news is – you can change. While in most cases emotional intelligence is an innate ability, with time and training one can develop the skill set to cope better with the work environment.

Journalist and science writer Daniel Goleman breaks down emotional intelligence into two types – Personal and Social. Within each of these, he identifies a range of skills which may be learned and applied to situations as an when the need arises.

If you want to learn how to use emotional intelligence to advance your career,  you would need to develop the social aspect of your emotional intelligence. While it is a long-term process, and for developing each individual skill you need time as well as professional help and training, here is a list to give you a roadmap towards honing your emotional intelligence, in order to advance your career:

1. Developing empathy: Become genuinely interested in people. Focus on the needs and feelings of other people and make an effort to learn their perspective.
2. Developing Social Skills: This includes a number of people-handling skills and skills to influence other people’s emotions effectively for positive workplace outcomes :
3. Learning how to persuade and influence people.
4. Learning how to communicate effectively.

• Learning how to deal with conflict.

1. Learning how to lead effectively.
2. Learning how to form a good rapport with co-workers
3. Team building and team working skills. (Collaboration and Cooperation)

Each of these is an individual area that you can learn and develop in order to advance your career. Click on these links to learn more about each aspect in greater detail. Now, these tricks should absolutely work for you, but if what you’re really looking for is a way to boost your success and confidence, you can head over to my site, www.instantkharismaseminar.com for life coaching and confidence training! I’ve helped thousands of people just like you to unlock their full potential and I can do it for you too! Wondering how? For the full story, you’ll have to check out my site, but basically… I teach you how to use your body language to sell more products and services- no matter what line of work you’re in! I’ll show you how to make a greater impact and skyrocket your influence even if you hate public speaking or feel awkward in front of a camera! If that sounds like what you need, then what are you waiting for?? Let me help you yourself today!