Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of your own and other people’s feelings and to use emotional information strategically to make better decisions and influence better outcomes. Our emotions are an innate system to respond to threats and seek safety. Emotions operate largely outside of conscious thought. When people feel threatened, they instinctively respond with a flight, flight, or freeze response, which in a workplace can manifest as undermining, blaming, absenteeism, etc. People with emotional intelligence raise the emotional component of people’s words and actions into consciousness to understand and respond to people better. Leaders with high emotional intelligence bring safety to those around them. Even subtle threats in a workplace are a significant distraction from working toward goals, which is why emotional intelligence helps create the conditions for higher performance. Learn more here.