Emotional intelligence is a highly favorable skill for any career path you take. Your personal brand and brand personality have everything to do with it — from how you look at yourself to how you perceive others. People naturally formulate notions when they interact with you. How you carry yourself is a reflection of who you are based on what people know and/or think of you and therefore, your emotional intelligence is a reflection of your brand personality and a skill that helps your personal brand evolve.

Your emotional intelligence matters for the following reasons:

1. Understanding how your emotions impact yourself and others
2. How you practice self-control and ignite motivation
3. How your values and persistence align with difficult citations
4. Effectively managing healthy relationships  

What are the Elements of Emotional Intelligence?

There are four key elements of emotional intelligence — self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. To get a significant sense of how emotionally intelligent you are, Psychology Today has created an Emotional Intelligence Quiz. It is extensive but worth completing as you think about how your emotional intelligence impacts your personal brand. I recommend taking this quiz once a year or so to discover how your level of emotional intelligence changes over time. Your brand personality will adapt accordingly.

What is the Difference Between Self-Awareness and Self-Management?

The main difference between Self-Awareness and Self-Management is what you believe are your strengths and weaknesses (Self-Awareness) as opposed to how you manage progress of your strengths and weaknesses (Self-Management). This involves creating a balance of how you show up for yourself and others through the awareness and management of your brand personality. 

Self-Awareness

Results from a study found women have significantly outscored men at understanding the way they feel through self-awareness. Yet, there are still many women who do not realize how their lack of self-awareness can harm not just their brand personality but their personal brand too. 

Signs You Might Lack Self-Awareness

• You can come off as conceited.
• You lack curiosity and assume a situation is what it is. 
• You can appear as being one-sided when change occurs. 
• You only feel your best when you have full control over a matter. 
• You have a negative reaction whenever feedback is given and/or received. 
• You spend more time worrying about what others do instead of focusing on yourself.

How to Increase Your Self-Awareness

• Be modest in how you reflect on your skills and attributes.
• Ask questions to understand a situation you are unfamiliar with. 
• Become a change agent or advocate when adapting to new norms.
• Understand what is within your control and make the best of that versus focusing on what is not in your control.  
• Be open to feedback and ask for it when focusing on areas of improvement.
• Learn from others while continuously focusing on your growth and development.

Self-Management

Oftentimes, in any setting, we are practicing Self-Management — the ability to regulate your emotions and behaviors. Results from a study found that while women are more likely to have better self-management than men when it comes to planning for the future, men are ahead in other key aspects of self-management — men are less likely than females to avoid difficult projects (S1), less likely to quit or withdraw with complicated tasks (S2), and are less likely to agree that, when in a serious disagreement, it is hard to talk calmly without getting upset

(T4). These differences play a role in how “women working full time in the U.S. are still paid just 83 cents to every dollar earned by men — and the consequences of this gap affect women throughout their lives” (AAUW, 2022). 

Signs You Might Lack Self-Management

• You do not take care of your physical and/or mental health.
• You make decisions based solely on your emotions. 
• You shy away from opportunities that seem out of reach.
• You tend to quit when various challenges arise.
• You easily become distracted when working on a task or project.
• You learn with a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset.

How to Improve Your Self-Management

• Set short-term goals and milestones and take breaks as needed. 
• Allow some time to process your emotions before reacting to a situation.
• Consider and/or accept opportunities that are outside of the norm. 
• Instead of quitting, take a break and re-evaluate your approach.
• Find a place and time where you have less distractions and commit. 
• Think beyond what you know and do now to what else you can learn and apply.

How Does My Personal Brand Impact My Social Awareness?

Social Awareness is about how your social skills adapt to the circumstances around you. This ability to adapt is critical to building your personal brand because of how your personal brand transforms throughout your journey. When your social insight — your ability to evaluate social situations in relation to the thought process and behaviors of others when predicting their reaction via social stimuli — is tested, your goal is to consider how your actions impact those around you. In return, people are more likely to interact with you and eventually trust that your personal brand is authentic.  

Your personal brand does not come with an on/off switch. This is why you should think beyond your job, education, hobbies, etc. to determine what your personal brand is. For example, if you believe your personal brand is being an artist and you decide 5 years later that you would rather be a model, your personal brand will not change because it is not tied directly to your occupation. However, your social awareness changes as your influence evolves. 

How Does Relationship Management Influence My Personal Brand?

As you define and build your personal brand, you are likely to experience relationships with different people in your life whether they be a manager, colleague, friend, family member, or acquaintance. Relationship Management is about managing and maintaining healthy relationships with others by using your ethical compass and compassion while interacting with them. When managed effectively, your likability grows, you gain new relationships and opportunities, and ultimately you increase your brand presence. 

This is partly why it is important for women to network. Networking helps you practice managing new and existing relationships through human interaction. You can network in-person and/or virtually. In either case, you can influence others through your personal brand. 

Conclusion

The concept of emotional intelligence includes understanding emotions, self-control, motivation and persistence of yourself and others to effectively manage those relationships. 

TAKe Brand Consulting offers space for women to develop their emotional intelligence by building on their personal brand in today’s multifaceted environment. 

TAKe Brand Consulting is also available to help companies looking to offer educational opportunities on emotional intelligence with your employee resource group or organization, contact us today.