The contemporary development of society has caused a shift in organisations from traditionally sought-after

hard skills to now soft skills, with Emotional intelligence (EI) ranking amongst the highest of soft skills. EI is
known as a mental process that allows people to understand, recognize, and manage emotional states to better
regulate their behaviours (Iliescun et al., 2013) and is imperative competency to have and understand in the
workforce. For this reason, I will specifically examine EI based on 4 categorisations; self-awareness, emotional
control, recognising and managing other emotions and compare my EI survey results, 1 being the lowest and 7
being the highest, with other sample results (general population, engineering professionals, students). By doing
so, this will provide me a better understanding of if my current experiences align or not literature and thereafter
understand what the future implications and or the strengths/ areas of development on my EI.

Self-awareness (SA) is the ability to discuss, disclose and have an overall greater understanding of one's
emotions or felling’s (Pennebaker & Francis, 1996). High SA increases one's ability to cope in stressful
workplace situations, have better negotiation, leadership capabilities, trust amongst co-workers and
organisational commitment (Bratton et al., 2011). My score for this ability was a 7, suggesting a higher SA
compared to the average of all three samples being 4.12. Most of my current experiences align with literature
and the outcome of a high SA, as my trust amongst my co-workers is extraordinarily strong, my commitment to
my workplace is close to 5 years, and I also possess proficient negotiation skills. However, unlike mentioned in
literature, my ability to cope with stressful workplace situations is poor. Overall, the positive future implications
of my SA score include good negotiation skills which helps professional success (Volkema, 2009), and overall
easier organisational alignment with future companies as high self-awareness is linked to both positive
qualitative and quantitative workplace outcomes (Carden et al.,2021). However, my emotional
management/control would need to be developed due to it being detrimental to me in future workplaces.

Secondly, the ability to control your own emotions (EC) can be explained either being able to connect or
disconnect from a feeling, emotion and reducing impulsivity and acting maladaptive to emotional experiences
(Tong et al., 2019). For this ability, I scored a 4, lower in comparison to the average of all three samples, which
was 5.4. Having low EC increases one's proclivity to jeopardise workplace relationships, inhibit team
performance and conflict resolution (Mumby et al.,1992). My own experiences align with this in the past I have
jeopardised my workplace relations, with my managers and co-workers due to my inability to control my own
emotions. This inhibited team performance and further worsened my relationship with co-workers as well. The
only benefit, I experienced however from having low EC would be resolving my own and others conflicts as I
wasn’t passive aggressive. This in future can be of utility in assisting me in workplace situations characterised
by conflict (Peralta et al.,2019). However, the weaknesses and developmental issues I will need to fix would be
controlling my emotions as it is an undesirable trait for employers. By bettering my EC and communication
between and with managers and co-workers, I will increase my employability and value as employers prize and
view this skill as a priority when hiring (Coffelt et al.,2019).

Thirdly, the ability to recognise emotions in others, I scored a 7, suggesting a higher ability compared to the
average of the three samples which was 4.5. Being able to recognise emotions in others, simply means being
proficient in reading facial expressions, body language (Mischel, 2000) and allows avoidance of negative
emotions from colleagues which can help better facilitate overall help team performance and cohesiveness
(Jordan et al.,2006), (Jordan & Lawrence, 2009). In my own work experiences, this is significantly true. On
workdays that are busy and stressful, being able to recognise co-workers' emotions allows me to carefully
interact with them. By doing so, I avoided negative responses and conflict, whilst also trying to encourage
positive emotions. In future, this will positively benefit career achievement opportunities, future workplace
organisational culture and the wellbeing, motivation and performance of my surrounding co-workers (Sabie
et.al, 2020)
Lastly, managing others emotions is a highly useful skill in the workplace environment as the performance of
constant emotional labour can take both a psychological and physical toll on workers (Ashkanasy & Daus,
2002). For this ability I scored a 7, higher compared to the mean 4.6 of all three sample groups. Being able to
manage others emotions can help successfully navigate through the emotional labour experienced by others and
can strengthen workplace relations by preventing the negative outcomes of stress (Morris et al., 2020). In
comparison to my own experiences is evident as in situations of my co-workers experiencing high negative
emotions, it is useful to provide help through managing their emotions which does minimize the negative
outcomes of these emotions. However, contingency factors like my own emotional status and familiarity of the
environment, dictates how well I can help. Therefore, the future implications of this in the workplace for me
would be mostly positive as I can anticipate and manage others emotions, which can assist in preventing
frustration, emotional exhaustion and burnout in others (Grandey, 2000). However, a developmental issue I will
need to address would be adjusting my EI ability to a corporate and or different workplace environment. This
will provide a fundamental benefit in my professional success and future employment opportunities (Hughes,
2005).

In summary, from research and personal experiences, EI in the workplace plays an imperative role. All four
measured components have many positive implications in the workplace, as indicated through strong academic
literature to support this. By researching the theoretical perspective of EI and how this aligned or misaligned
with my own workplace experiences, has strengthened my self-awareness of EI. My learning, knowledge and
approach have drastically changed for the better and in future, this will help me in my career.
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