Here is an important truth. We are human beings, and we make mistakes.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, manage, and express your emotions appropriately and respond appropriately to other's emotions, thus creating effective communication exchanges. In the workplace, you can become emotional for various reasons. You can be disappointed by a rejected proposal, frustrated after dealing with a difficult supervisor, or sad for a colleague going through a hard time. It can be challenging to manage or express your emotions in these situations. For example, making a mistake on a project may make you feel disappointed, sad, worried, and frustrated. Those feelings may linger for hours, days, or even weeks.
During this time, you will continue to make decisions, but your decisions and conversations will be influenced by your emotions, which may put you in a stasis where you aren't confident to make any decision. Being unconfident can be dangerous because it opens you to biases that may play into your emotional intelligence, such as group thinking, where you conform to the group's demands rather than your own, or over-empathizing, where other's emotions outweigh your reason. However, by managing your emotions, you can take control and make decisions with calm assurance.
Here is an important truth. We are human beings, and we make mistakes. Don't forget that. Admit your mistake and your plan to fix it, then move on, knowing you did all you could. I know this is easier said than done, but the key is to fight your destructive emotions with reason. The fact is, no amount of worrying will change the outcome, so don't dwell there.
Alternatively, we can feel happiness, which is an emotion that is all too fleeting. It isn't because you don't have a reason to be happy, as some suggest; it is because happiness comes from a mismatch between your mental predictions that your conscious brain completes being different than reality, thus creating a new experience.
Let's take the example above about making a mistake and sinking into misery. Let's say the next day, the boss comes in and says, "It's alright. Just be careful in the future." Immediately, the sun comes out, and your misery is lifted. The conclusion differed from what you predicted, thus creating an unexpected pleasant experience.
So, what emotional state should we be in when we make decisions?
Calm and self-assured.
How do we get to this emotional state?
Practice Mindfulness
Practice Self-awareness
Deep breathing
Using what you learned today to fight your destructive emotions with reason
