Communication skills and Emotional Intelligence

I have worked at a few different jobs so far in my life, but noticed that the biggest reason why things go wrong is poor communication. I have heard it from a number of different sources, but it is becoming more and more true as the years roll by. It is easy to forget about things when you are consumed with trying to meet deadlines, or juggling multiple different projects.

In web design the biggest time-waster is not getting iterative feedback throughout the whole design process. It is easy to want to really flesh out and go into a lot of detail before you show anything. For different web projects that I have worked on, it is  good to get an idea roughed out and shown as early as possible. It is tempting to want to show them a final, “cooler” version, but having to redo it because wrong direction is all too common. This eats up too much of your time and makes the process take longer.

Clients, bosses or other non-creative people generally have a hard time visualizing designs. They don’t know what they like until they see it. A lot of time they don’t have good design sense anyway, so that can add to the confusion.

Along with learning technical skills to do the job, learning communication skills to talk with your clients and bosses is intrinsic. It will create a more open relationship as well as make your workflow more efficient. They will be happier because the design is what they want, and you will be happier because you aren’t spending overage time reworking something yet again.

Emotional Intelligence

One important aspect I am relearning and reading more about is Emotional Intelligence (EI). People that have a high emotional intelligence are very likable and handle situations very well. Some of the traits that make up your EI is:

• active listening
• empathy
• stress/anger management
• self-improvement
• attitude

For example, getting angry at employees and using destructive criticism contributes to lost productivity and dropped morale. Effective and productive employees will be getting the same pay with less of a contribution. They will be more irritated and have a harder time concentrating on their work. The best CEOs and managers realize this and always have their emotions under control - and be able to confront and resolve any issues that might arise.

While suppressing bad emotions isn’t healthy,  it isn’t professional to express them in a working environment. Deep breathing, taking a 5 minute break, or other measures should be done to clear your mind. It will make you appear more confident, amiable, and a better team member. Another great blog I started reading is Mindtools which talks about personal and business etiquette and communication skills.

My EI Score

I went to queendom.com and took a questionnaire about emotional intelligence and this was the results. Be aware that it is a long 106 questions. Some of the sections show you a series of people and it tells asks you what they are feeling. Fun! My average EQ shows that I have much to learn in this area. How exciting!