At the beginning of the 20th century, automobiles put the majority of blacksmiths out of work as people didn’t need horseshoes anymore. And the same is eventually going to happen with accountants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, financial analysts, and most manufacturing jobs. Ensuring your future employability will require you to develop new skills. Developing the seven habits of emotionally intelligent people will help you get very far.
According to a recent study by Oxford University, in the next 25 years, up to 47% of jobs will be lost to artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation technologies. Computers will be able to perform most tasks cheaper, faster, and more effectively. As a result, most people will either become fully unemployed or have to learn a whole new set of skills to adapt. This, I believe, will free up thousands and thousands of people to pursue their true passions in life and follow their hearts.
To protect your future employability and give you a competitive advantage over others in the new world economy already making its way in, here are seven Emotional Intelligence skills I wholeheartedly believe you MUST develop. Without them, as Daniel Goleman said, you won’t get very far.
The Seven Habits of Emotionally Intelligent People
1. Know Yourself Fully
To know yourself is to be aware of yourself and what drives or motivates your life. This means you know your core values and what your strengths and weaknesses are. You’re also aware of what you think and feel and how your emotions and actions impact the people around you. The more you know, love, and accept yourself, the easier to understand, love and accept others.
2. Building Effective Relationships
Human beings are relational creatures needing connection and interaction as much as water and food. As more jobs become automated in the future, there will be an increased need for relating with others in positive, caring, compassionate, and life-affirming ways. Skills that involve creating and maintaining healthy, meaningful, and effective relationships will be in high demand.
3. Active Listening
Effective communication requires both speaking and listening. When it comes to listening, the most critical skill you can develop is being able to hear what is not being said. Actively listening to someone while you are fully present physically, mentally, and emotionally allows you to understand what they are feeling and what their body language is trying to communicate.
4. Expressing Empathy
Empathy is the ability to feel, understand and share another person’s emotional pain. This skill lets you know what it feels like to be the other person and walk in their shoes. It will also allow you to build greater trust, intimacy, and a deep sense of connection with them. Empathy is a critical element of effective leadership and a skill no computer will ever truly express. Empathy is also the precursor of compassion.
5. Giving Assertive, Life Affirming Feedback
Learning to give and receive assertive, life-affirming feedback will provide you and the other person with ample opportunities for growth. When this feedback is done with a loving, respectful, assertive and life-affirming attitude that values and honors the other person, there will be an increase in motivation and inspiration to reach higher levels of performance and success.
6. Managing Emotional Stress
Emotional stress impairs your ability to think clearly and make the right choices. It also impacts your ability to do a job correctly and communicate effectively and lovingly with others. As a result, you’ll need to develop the ability to remain strong, calm, centered and focused on what has already become an increasingly emotionally charged world. This requires Emotional Self-Mastery.
7. Acting Intuitively
Intuition is the ability to see, feel, and sense what is not apparent to the eye. This requires that you access that highly creative and intuitive aspect of yourself that sees the bigger picture of a situation or problem. Acting from this inner sense of sight, feeling, or knowing with decisiveness will set you apart from others in your field and increase your chances of success.
These seven emotional intelligence skills will prepare you for all the changes our economy will eventually face. Mastering them will also help you become a better human being, someone others can easily relate to, feel more connected to, and trust. Regardless of your current position, title, or job, developing these skills will get you farther than you ever dreamed!
To help you develop these seven skills, I’d like to invite you to join the next cohort of my Heart Warrior Training. This 12-week small group coaching program will help you achieve a high level of Emotional Self-Mastery, embrace your shadows, and communicate with others with vulnerability, courage, and compassion. You can sign up or learn more about it here.
From my heart to yours,
