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Daniel Goleman designed a framework that broke down emotional intelligence into four specific areas of interest – Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management. Goleman goes on to say that each of these areas can be developed and nurtured. The website www.psychologytoday.com explains that any leader who is self-aware about his emotions or feelings can manage them better, leading to better outcomes. This self-awareness can also lead to being able to understand and pick up on emotions or feelings of people around us, which drives empathy and a more inclusive leadership style that again can get you the results you are looking for. Goleman talks of exhibiting empathy which is being socially aware especially of the organizational context that many marketers find themselves in. Self awareness is the first step to self management. One needs to understand oneself in order to manage oneself as a marketing professional in the emotional intelligence journey. Try to answer the following questions: What are your strengths? What is your communication style? What are the things that make you happy/upset you? How do you react to stressful situations? What do you do when you are faced with conflict? These are some of the questions that could help you understand yourself better. Once you have answers to these and more, you can craft ways in which to manage yourself better. For example, if you realize that doing things at the last minute is stressful for you, then perhaps you need to Marketers usually fo- cus on the theory of re- lationship marketing. Any discussion on this topic usually compares and contrasts aspects of transactional marketing and relationship mar- keting, the latter being recognized as crucial for success in business. improve on your time management skills rather than go for a meeting and take it out on people there, like in the example above. of this exciting journey that can turn you into a better marketer, living out the best version of yourself. Working with a career coach can help you progress in your career. Emotional intelligence is seen as a critical Or you realize that your communication skill that one must have in today’s work style is all jumbled up and your team place and the marketer of the future needs mates do not seem to understand what to focus on self development. you need done, then you can learn to work on your communication style. A quote from an anonymous source says, “True Leaders always practice the three Joyce Thairu is a researcher with a leading Rs – Respect for Self, Respect for Others, public university in Kenya. Her area of Responsibility for all their actions.” A interest is emotional intelligence at the leader cannot do these three things if he workplace and she has been doing a lot of has not grown his emotional intelligence awareness creation and education among skills. Joyce Thairu also says, “Emotional the youth and in organizations. Intelligence (soft skills) makes the technical skills shine.” She feels strongly that training and measuring emotional intelligence among What are you feeling after reading individuals is key for their success in this article? Describe your emotion their careers and in their lives in general. in one sentence and send it to: Info@ The youth are the leaders of tomorrow, thrityengineer.org for the opportunity for and they quite possibly will be in the a free 30 minutes virtual coaching session. marketing profession, so this is a good Happy Holidays!! opportunity to get to them early and start building the skills associated with emotional intelligence. Christopher D Conners a career coach and author of the Amazon bestseller The Value of You outlines some of the traits of an emotionally intelligent person. Aside from empathy and self-awareness, both discussed by Goleman, other important traits include curiosity, passion, being optimistic and adaptable. In addition is the desire to help others succeed and succeed for yourself. If you are now asking yourself how you can better your emotional intelligence quotient, then you are at the beginning Thrity Engineer- Mbuthia is a seasoned marketing professional who has a passion for helping others succeed through the transformative power of coaching. She is the first woman in Kenya to receive the Fellow of Chartered Institute of Marketing credential and is also a certified coach. You can reach her on mail at: Info@ thrityengineer.org.