How to Increase Your Emotional and Social Intelligence
"What is emotional intelligence? The best way to think about emotional intelligence (at least in terms of the part that can be developed) is a set of skills in emotional communication. That means the ability to convey felt emotions accurately to others, the ability to “read” others’ emotional messages, and regulating and controlling the experience and expression of emotions.
And what is social intelligence? Think of social intelligence as general knowledge and skill in understanding people and social situations. Some elements of social intelligence include:
- Conversational skills: Knowing what to say, how to say it, and not getting tongue-tied.
- Knowledge of social roles, and unspoken social norms
- Effective listening skills
- Impression management skills: Maintaining a delicate balance between controlling the image you portray to others and being authentic.
- Understanding what makes other people “tick”: Being attuned to others’ behavior, and being able to understand another’s circumstances so you know where they are coming from.
- Social self-efficacy: Feeling comfortable around other people and having self-confidence in your ability to interact with others.
Strategies to Improve Emotional and Social Intelligence
- Become a people-watcher. Pay attention to subtle nonverbal cues in others’ tone of voice, facial expressions, body movements, and posture.
- Become more aware of your own emotional behavior. Get feedback on how you convey emotions to others.
- Learn to make small talk. Work on your conversational skills. Try to make the conversation interesting and socially rewarding for both of you.
- Practice public speaking.
- Take an acting or improvisation class. Having to play roles or come up with conversations “on the fly” are good strategies for developing both emotional, but especially, social intelligence."
Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!
Reflection:
Do you know any other ways to improve emotional and social skills?
#EmotionalIntellegence #SocialIntellegence #Communication #Relationships
@comfortableNight4463
Such a great and relevant post, Night, thankyou for sharing.
I cannot think of any other skills to add here currently, the article covered some amazing tips. ❤
Just want to emphasize more on "people watching", and trying to attune ourselves with the other person, i think it is a wonderful skill to have (like not in a creepy way lolol), but to actually be aware of various kinds of societal cues, body language, tonality, comfort and space etc, it is truly helpful, and I can also try linking it with being a listener haha, a common phrase and I agree greatly with "listen more, speak less to know an understand the other person better" (here listening also includes to being observant about the body language, and gestures, eye contact etc being made too, it can tell a lot about a person in the current situation).
A quick example, couple of years ago at a party, there was this person who was 'visibly' feeling uncomfortable and sort of 'out of place', the funny part is that I wasn't feeling the most comfortable there either lol, but it was sad to see them eat alone so I knew I had to gather enough courage to go talk to them, I did hehe, introduced, cracked some lame jokes to set the vibe haha ~ fast forward to 8 years ~ now, this person still remembers me as "you're the only one who noticed and took an effort to make me feel comfortable back then", it really does feel nice to know they remember it even now, shows how deeply it may have impacted them. (I still laugh thinking to myself how I was able to make someone else feel comfortable when I wasnt feeling the same either lol, talk about lifting people up in the similar boat, yeah? Haha) I'm still grateful for it though!❤
@comfortableNight4463
I was born without any innate ability in this area. To this day I struggle with what is social expectable so I avoid showing any reaction to people so I don't do the wrong thing.
@comfortableNight4463
Related to being a people watcher perhaps, but what I like to do is observe someone who I think has above-average social skills and make note of what they do in social situations and why it is they come across as so socially competent.
I'm pretty awkward myself, but I tend to notice my own awkwardness less when the person I'm interacting with is very much not awkward. After the interaction, I'm like, okay, I wonder how they did that.
