How Do You Help Clients Develop Their Emotional Intelligence?
In your practice, you may have encountered clients who consistently have difficulty securing and maintaining good opportunities. Despite having all the required qualifications, they can’t seem to get ahead in their careers. You may also observe that other people with little education or experience seem to land jobs and promotions with ease. For these individuals, it just might be that competencies related to Emotional Intelligence (EI) have made all the difference in their career progression and performance. The good news is that EI can be learned and it is possible for you to help clients develop their emotional intelligence.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
As defined by Psychology Today Canada, “Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence is generally said to include a few skills: namely emotional awareness, or the ability to identify and name one’s own emotions; the ability to harness those emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and the ability to manage emotions, which includes both regulating one’s own emotions when necessary and helping others to do the same.”
Emotional intelligence has gained momentum since the 1990s as a key aspect of career development. With experience, you can deliver various strategies, techniques, and assessments to help clients increase their degree of EI and enhance personal competencies to their benefit. Employers value EI because it improves workplace outcomes. Many well-reputed employers in all sectors invest in EI training and Emotional Quotient (EQ) testing as part of their recruitment and retention practices.
Here are some resources that can help to strengthen your understanding of EI and how it might be incorporated into your career development work with clients.
Emotional intelligence and how it affects career success | Dr. Karyn Gordon | City (5:04 minutes)
How to Develop Emotional Intelligence | O’Reardon Consulting (2:18)
How We’ve Been Misled by Emotional Intelligence | Kris Girrell | TEDxNatick (14:34 minutes)
Emotional Intelligence | Katja Schlegel, Stéphane Côté | The Agenda with Steve Paikin (19:43 minutes)
Using Soft Skills to Enhance Emotional Intelligence | Sharon Graham | Career Professionals of Canada (post)
A Nobel prize nominee’s step-by-step guide to improving emotional intelligence | Quora | Quartz (post)
Consider these questions and please add to the discussion below.
- What is the value of emotional connection?
- How do you help clients decrease the risk of having their emotions lead to poor decisions?
- How do you help clients develop self-awareness and self-management competencies?
- How do you help clients develop social awareness and relationship management competencies?
- How do you help clients identify patterns, triggers, and habits that derail performance?
- How do you help clients get “unstuck” and create positive, lasting changes in their emotional intelligence?
If you’d like to expand your skills as a career development professional, and learn more about what it takes to support clients in the new world of work, consider investing in CPC’s new work-life coaching program.
Sharon Graham is founder and executive director of Career Professionals of Canada. Committed to setting the standard for excellence in the career development profession, Sharon has authored top selling paperback publications and textbooks, and has established a range of certification, professional development, community development, mentoring, and award programs. As executive director of CPC, she provides foresight and leadership within the sector and ensures that the mandate of this national organization is upheld with integrity.
Photo by Dzmitry Dzemidovich on 123RF
Excellent topic! I think EI does play a part in determining success. I believe emotional connection does have value because we all like doing business with people that we know and trust.
Wow – what a topic! I didn’t think of the terminology ‘Emotional Intelligence’ but it is very relevant and I do believe that most of us do address this in some way with our counselling, but not in the formal terms stated here.
I am definitely going to explore some more – SPACE!
I like the SPACE (self-starter, passion, assertive, confidence, emotional awareness) model that was mentioned in the video.
We can help our clients become more emotionally aware of certain situations in the workplace by intuitively paying attention to certain cues and identifying patterns and triggers, which will enhance their career success.