20 Signs That Indicate You're An Emotionally Intelligent Person
Becoming a Champion of Empathy
Look, we're only human. We're bound to make mistakes and feel some not-so-good feelings from time to time. That's okay. What's important is how you move through your day-to-day life. Can you move past shortcomings, understand your own negative emotions, and still find ways to celebrate your loved ones? Or do you see yourself often turning to anger and bitterness when things don't go your way?
1. Self-Awareness
Being self-aware enough to recognize when and why you're experiencing certain emotions is crucial to gaining a deeper understanding of yourself and your interpersonal relationships. If you lack self-awareness, you're likely to bring old, bitter feelings into current situations.
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2. Empathy
Having empathy is a basic human skill that everyone should have. Listening, understanding, and showing up for your friends and family during a rough time in their lives is the basis for how communities should operate. When everyone acts selfishly, the world feels very, very alone.
3. Emotional Expression
Knowing your emotions is hard enough, but also knowing how to get some of those feelings out is just as important. Many people turn to art, music, poetry, and writing for self-expression, but you can also sweat out your feelings at the gym or by playing a sport.
4. Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the overarching term for learning how to manage and control your emotions. If you're constantly feeling on edge, unfocused, and out of control, you might need to find better ways to self-regulate.
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5. Seeking Feedback
Seeking feedback in your personal or professional life says two things: You're curious about how you can improve at something, and you're not afraid to hear what you need to work on. It also shows that you care about your relationships.
6. Effective Communicator
Being able to communicate effectively is a telltale sign of emotional intelligence. Whether you're in the workplace or speaking with loved ones, coming across as disinterested, vague, or standoffish means you're likely not communicating effectively with those around you.
7. Taking Responsibility
Being able to look at a situation, understand you did something wrong, and having the strength to say "I'm sorry" to the person or people you hurt takes a lot of emotional intelligence. Never being able to apologize, displacing blame, and saying that you "didn't mean" to hurt their feelings doesn't count as an apology.
8. Giving Praise
Everybody likes giving praise. However, if you're not willing to share in the spoils of success, shine the light on someone else, and celebrate another person's accomplishments, without cruel thoughts of jealousy or envy, it's clear that you have some personal things to work on.
9. Adaptability
A skill always looked for on a resume, being able to quickly adapt in any situation, is a great sign that you keep a cool and level head, even if you're freaking out on the inside.
10. Motivation
Negative Nelly tends not to have any motivation because they have a poor outlook on life. But if you know what you want and you know how to achieve it, the world is your oyster! You just have to get up and get it done.
11. Social Awareness
Having an understanding of people's backgrounds, personal situations, beliefs, and needs is especially important to create the building blocks of a new relationship. If you didn't take the time to hear what another person had to say, you'd be stuck talking to the same three people for the rest of your life.
12. Resilience
Resilience is something you learn, not something you're born with. Your ability to get back up after taking a fall and your general attitude after a setback give clear insight into how you handle situations. This trait goes hand-in-hand with adaptability, as being able to adapt quickly and move forward is a clear sign of resilience.
13. Conflict Management
This doesn't mean starting a fight with your friends for the sake of arguing, but being able to have others see different perspectives than their own. If you can help others understand what and why they're fighting about something, you likely have high emotional intelligence.
14. Influential Without Authority
Playing into the comfort and level-headedness that comes with emotional intelligence, your ability to influence others without wielding direct power is one of the best ways to see how emotionally sound you are.
15. Team Player
Taking part in collaborative activities is not everyone's cup of tea. However, if you're operating under a team dynamic, playing your part and not undermining the group effort is a baseline requirement for the workplace.
16. Impulse Control
Being able to check one's impulses and maintain a professional demeanor is a daily requirement for anyone working in a high-stress situation. While controlling your impulses doesn't mean you don't act accordingly, taking a step back to check in with yourself keeps your head cool.
17. Perceptiveness
Similarly to social awareness, perceptiveness grants you the ability to gain more insight from a person based on visual cues. If you're speaking to a stranger and they've got their arms crossed in front of them, eyes forward, and looking rather antsy, you might be making them uncomfortable.
18. Thick-Skinned
Ever heard the phrase, "You can dish it out but you can't take it" before? If you're someone who is more than willing to poke fun at your friends, but gets quiet and grumpy when they do the same to you, chances are you don't have a thick skin. We would recommend growing one.
19. Pausing Before Reacting
Hearing some upsetting news may cause people to react quickly and harshly, making an already bad situation even worse. A good sign of emotional intelligence is being able to pause, process, and possibly cool off before making a decision.
20. Authenticity
One of the absolute best ways to showcase. Your emotional intelligence is to live as your authentic self. Having to hide behind a veneer you've created, or not say what you mean, will leave you bitter and unconfident. From the famous lips of RuPaul, "If you don't love yourself, how're you gonna love anybody else?"
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