Emotional intelligence is important in all aspects of our personal and work life and without it we may never reach our full potential. You may be able to solve complex problems, but if you can’t interact well with colleagues then you are limiting your opportunities.
Emotional intelligence has four key area: emotional perception, emotional reasoning, emotional understanding and emotion management. There is debate about whether these traits can be learnt or whether they are simply innate but whatever might be true it is worth being aware of them at the every least.
Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important for a Business Analyst?
Emotional intelligence is important for a business analyst because the role of a BA involves interacting with people if a project is to be a success. If a BA lacks emotional intelligence they will struggle to get people onside and to work with all levels of stakeholders. If you cannot identify and control your own emotions you will find it difficult to be aware of the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence impacts on every single thing you say and do, therefore it is extremely important to a successful career in any field.
You can work on improving your emotional intelligence and the more you can control your own emotions and learn how to identify both your own and other peoples’ emotional signals, the more you will be able to assess situations accurately and take your business analysis skills to an altogether higher level.
Improving Your Emotional Intelligence
Here are some easy ways to improve your emotional intelligence:
Interaction With Other People
Do you listen fully when other people are talking or are you just waiting to say your bit? If this sounds like you, try listening instead and responding to what other people have said. You may just find they have ideas every bit as good as yours.
Attention Seeking
Many business analysts like to be in the spotlight – to be seen as the “fixer” and problem solver but try stepping out of the spotlight for a while and acknowledging the accomplishments of other members of the project team.
Reactions to Stress
Anger, aggression, frustration – these are emotions we all feel from time to time but if you can control these emotions in the workplace you might just find your working relationships improve and, as an added bonus, you will feel less stressed
Take Responsibility
If things aren’t going well or you have made an error then learn to take responsibility – after all we are all humans and no one goes through life without making many, many mistakes. Some people simply cannot apologise yet learning to do so will show your human side and could improve your relationships with work colleagues.
Emotional intelligence may be a new buzz term but for a business analyst it is really just about learning how to keep your own emotions under control and becoming more aware of how other people are feeling. It’s about focusing on other people instead of always feeling you should be centre stage. So it is not basically a difficult thing to achieve and I, for one, believe that it can be learnt and that mastering emotional intelligence could change your perspective on work and life.
