Emotional Intelligence: Use these sample phrases to craft meaningful performance evaluations, drive change and motivate your workforce.

Emotional Intelligence is the capability to identify your emotions, understand what they are telling me and realize how the feelings are affecting you and the people around you.

Emotional Intelligence: Exceeds Expectations Phrases

  • Understands one's own strengths and weaknesses, and is able to handle and learn from constructive criticism
  • Maturely reveals one's own emotions and exercises restraint and control when needed
  • Gracefully accepts defeat; always lets go and accepts the situation as it is
  • Comfortably walks in someone else's shoe and craves understanding of other colleagues easily
  • Avoids power struggles and backstabbing and is able to build rapport and trust quickly with other employees
  • Is an effective listener; always shows willingness to listen and understand colleagues objections
  • Is effective at persuading and convincing colleagues especially when the stakes are high
  • Is less defensive and more open to feedback especially when it involves areas of improvement
  • Does not get easily disappointed when things don't go according to plan
  • Uses awareness of one's own emotions and the other colleagues' emotions in order to manage interactions successfully

Emotional Intelligence: Meets Expectations Phrases

  • Explains tough situations in a proper and professional way that is clear to the rest of the team members
  • Creates healthy dialogues to help bring forward the best solution and demonstrates a sincere appreciation for opposing viewpoints
  • Presents problem analysis and recommended solution to other employees rather than just describing or identifying the problem itself
  • Addresses issues in a professional, constructive way, and persuades others to approach issues in the same manner
  • Treats co-workers with respect and fairness, preserves their self-confidence and dignity, and shows regard for their opinions
  • Takes responsibility for one's own actions; apologizes quickly after hurting someone, walks away from arguments and forgives others rather than giving into feelings of resentment
  • Chooses arguments and considers what is worth arguing about and what is not, and gives up any urge to punish or seek revenge
  • Makes eye-contact, pays attention to nonverbal clues such as tone of the voice, facial expressions, and posture when having a conversation with a colleague
  • Uses gentle humor, while explaining things that are difficult to express, without creating a flat
  • Does a self-evaluation of one's own emotions, strengths, and shortcomings a few times every day and works on areas that need improvement

Emotional Intelligence: Needs Improvement Phrases

  • Has trouble communicating; regularly engages in off-putting conversations and can be highly territorial at times
  • Humiliates staff members and makes others feel intimidated when working on company projects or tasks
  • Often feels frustrated and gets impatient with colleagues who do not seem to get the point
  • Does not have the ability to control and handle anger, frustrations, annoyance, sorrow and other emotions
  • Gets stressed easily and is not able to spot and tackle situations before things escalate
  • Makes assumptions quickly without giving one's thoughts to develop and without considering the possible consequences
  • Lacks good communication skills. Easily gets distracted and does not absorb another colleague's point of view
  • Always gets involved in the office conflicts and drama and does not see the need to stop or prevent them
  • Struggles to set goals that align with personal motivation and does not show interest in focusing on achieving performance goals
  • Often uses phrases which turn off clients when persuading them to try the company's services

Emotional Intelligence: Self Evaluation Questions

  • What is one thing that makes you frustrated or angry at work and what do you do when that happens?
  • Describe a time when you received feedback on your performance, and you had to disagree with it. How did you handle the situation?
  • What is your greatest weakness? Can you give situations when your weakness was tested in the workplace?
  • Can you think of a time when you said or did something that had a positive impact on a colleague or client? What was it?
  • What is your greatest strength? How do you make sure your colleagues benefit from your greatest strength?
  • Have you ever had a dispute with a colleague or client? What steps did you take to deal with the situation?
  • Can you describe a time when understanding your colleague's perspective helped you resolve an issue or accomplish a task?
  • Why is it so important to build trust and rapport with colleagues? How do you develop the two in the workplace?
  • Is there a time a colleague came to you with a problem? How did you respond?
  • Which is one of the most stressful situations you have had? How did you resolve the situation?

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