Describe each of the 4 EI competencies and provide examples of how each could be applied by a Human Services Professional

In everyday activities, one should learn how to address crises because they occur without warning. Many organizations have come up with contingency measures to handle emergencies. However, these measures are devoid of emotional intelligence (EI), which helps people handle crises better than those without EI. The four EI competencies include self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationships management.

Self-awareness is the potential to understand yourself and know your feelings. It involves accurate self-assessment, knowing your weaknesses and strengths, and what their impacts are. Additionally, one should possess self-confidence and the willingness to be at the forefront. In the human service profession, one can apply self-awareness to control what makes them feel stressed, defensive, or angry. Knowing the causes can help one deal with the situations more calmly when they crop up. When working in an organization where one deals with many people, one needs to take a walk to manage the issues (Washington, 2017).

In self-management, one has to learn how to control their feelings and adequately express them. It involves goal-oriented, self-motivated, honest, showing resilience, and having a positive outlook. To apply self-management, one has to embrace new skills such as reflective listening and motivational interviewing. As a manager, it is essential to understand how to define and share responsibilities and roles. One can also improve tools and techniques to deal with issues arising in the workplace.

Social awareness encompasses the ability to have empathy to form connections with others, acknowledging and understanding their emotions. It also involves contributing to the group, being helpful, and having excellent listening skills. To possess social awareness, one has to display the ability to express themselves. It can be applied in the human service profession to collaborate with others,  communicate efficiently and share information with other workmates.

Relationship management entails possessing inspirational leadership, clearly articulating points, mastering the expertise to manage relationships and lead. The person should possess the skills to settle disputes, misunderstandings, and differences in opinions. Additionally, one show should showcase the ability to institute change, assist others in developing skills and knowledge, and effectively collaborate with others. The competency can be used to motivate and engage employees and create teamwork (Kotsou et al., 2019).

State which of the 4 EI competencies you feel is the most important and explain your reasoning.

According to my view, the most important EI competency among the four is self-awareness, which entails using emotions to understand ourselves. When we understand ourselves, we see ourselves as separate and unique people. With self-awareness, one can identify areas of change and work towards developing those areas, including identifying areas that need improvements. Self-awareness encompasses most of the elements found in the other three competencies, which makes it suitable for application in a workplace environment.

Describe how you could use the EI competency that you designated as “most important” to improve your professional and personal relationships

As humans, understanding ourselves contributes to our personal and professional growth. I will use self-awareness to understand my emotions and the triggers which cause anger and stress when handling my daily activities at the workplace. By understanding those feelings and emotions, I can seek a better way of addressing the issues. Taking a walk is one way of relieving stress and anxiety, contributing to better performance at the workplace and better relationships with my colleagues and clients. To improve my work productivity at school, I will do a personal assessment better to understand myself and my relationships with people around me. This practice can affect behavior change boosting my relationship with others. Lastly, I will find ways to manage my frustration and anger, which have affected my work productivity and relationship with others.