5 Steps to Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence at Work

5 Steps to Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence at Work Emotional intelligence at work won’t just help you be a better coworker and employee. It is instrumental if you want to become a leader, or a mover and shaker within your field. Figuring out what other people may be thinking, wanting, feeling, and needing, and being sensitive and adaptable to those things will also, of course, make you a better person. Developing these skills would be a win-win personally and professionally, and may just be the secret weapon you need to distinguish yourself and achieve that extra level of success.Here are 5Â  strategies that you can use to start honing (and eventually mastering) your emotional intelligence at work. Start early and see how your career can change.1. Self-AssessIt’s not just about knowing who you are, or what you like, or even what your wants and needs are. It’s not even merely being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses. It’s about understanding these things and having the confidence to w ork from within them, with an aim of accepting your current state, but constantly striving to improve. If you master this, and know exactly where and who you are- in work and in life- you’ll be much better equipped to get where you need to go.2. Self-regulateDevelop your inner Zen master. Keeping your cool in a crisis will help distinguish you for leadership. And being disciplined enough to control your emotions and disruptive or destructive tendencies might eventually reroute them entirely. Cultivate calm and positivity. Worst case scenario, you’ll stress much less. Best case, you’ll become the office guru, then Queen of the Universe.3. Practice empathyYou may think your manager or your co-worker is a total jerk, maybe even an incompetent one. But before you write them off, try to imagine being in their shoes. Are there complicating factors in their lives that you may or may not know about that might be affecting their work or behavior? If you can try and imagi ne how others might be feeling, you’ll be better able to feel for them- and able to exercise compassion. The selfish upside here is that you’ll get much better at understanding what motivates people, and able to maneuver yourself and your team accordingly.4. Relate to peopleReal connections are hard to come by. Cultivate them. Don’t just treat people like stepping stones and distractedly try to maintain your relationships. Work at it. It’s much easier to do if you work on #3 and actually listen to and care about people. And it’s crucial for developing #5.5. CommunicateYou’ve heard a million times that effective communication is the biggest key to leadership and real success. That’s probably because it’s true. Cultivating all of the above skills will help you to avoid misunderstandings, miscommunications, bruised feelings, and mixed signals. It will make your team stronger, and it will make you better- at your job and at your li fe. You’ll have a much easier time developing your sense of purpose and working on your own and with your team to achieve that purpose.

Biography of Mother Jones, Labor Organizer and Agitator

Biography of Mother Jones, Labor Organizer and Agitator Mother Jones (born Mary Harris; 1837–November 30, 1930) was a key radical figure in United States labor history. She was a fiery orator, a union agitator for mine workers, and a co-founder of the International Workers of the World (IWW). The current-day political magazine Mother Jones was named for her and maintains her legacy of left-wing politics. Fast Facts: Mother Jones Known For:  Radical political activist, orator, organizer of mine worker union, co-founder of the International Workers of the WorldAlso Known As:  Mother of All Agitators. the Miners Angel, Mary Harris, Mary Harris JonesBorn:  c. August 1, 1837 (although she claimed May 1, 1830 as her birth date) in County Cork, IrelandParents: Mary Harris and Robert HarrisDied:  November 30, 1930 in Adelphi, MarylandEducation: Toronto Normal SchoolPublished Works:  The New Right, Letter of Love and Labor, Autobiography of Mother JonesSpouse: George JonesChildren: Four children (all of whom died in a yellow fever epidemic)Notable Quote: In spite of oppressors, in spite of false leaders, in spite of labor’s own lack of understanding of its needs, the cause of the worker continues onward. Slowly his hours are shortened, giving him leisure to read and to think. Slowly, his standard of living rises to include some of the good and beautiful things of the world. Slowly the cause of his ch ildren becomes the cause of all....Slowly those who create wealth of the world are permitted to share it.  The future is in labor’s strong, rough hands. Early Life Born Mary Harris in 1837 in County Cork, Ireland, young Mary Harris was the daughter of Mary Harris and Robert Harris.  Her father worked as a hired hand and the family lived on the estate where he worked. The family followed Robert Harris to America, where he had fled after taking part in a revolt against the landowners. The family then moved to Canada, where Mary went to public school. Work and Family Harris became a schoolteacher first in Canada, where, as a Roman Catholic, she could only teach in the parochial schools. She moved to Maine to teach as a private tutor and then to Michigan, where she got a teaching job in a convent. Harris then moved to Chicago and worked as a dressmaker. After two years, she moved to Memphis to teach and met George Jones in 1861. They married and had four  children.  George was an iron moulder and also worked as a union organizer. During their marriage, he began working full-time in his union job. George Jones and all four children died in a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee, in September and October 1867. Begins Organizing After the death of her family, Mary Harris Jones moved to Chicago, where she returned to work as a dressmaker. Mary claimed that her pull to the labor movement increased when she sewed for wealthy Chicago families. I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front....The tropical contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care. Tragedy struck Jones life again in 1871. She lost her home, shop, and belongings in the Great Chicago Fire. She had already connected with the secretive workers organization Knights of Labor and was active in speaking for the group and organizing. After the fire, she left her dressmaking to take up full-time organizing with the Knights. Increasingly Radical By the mid-1880s, Mary Jones had left the Knights of Labor, finding them too conservative. She became involved in more radical organizing by 1890. A fiery orator, she spoke at the location of strikes around the country. She helped coordinate hundreds of strikes, including those with coal miners in Pennsylvania in 1873 and railroad workers in 1877. She was named often in newspapers as Mother Jones, a white-haired radical labor organizer in her signature black dress, lace collar, and plain head covering. Mother Jones was a loving moniker given her by workers, grateful for her care of and devotion to working people. United Mine Workers and Wobblies Mother Jones principally worked with the United Mine Workers, although her role was unofficial. Among other activist actions, she helped organize strikers wives.  Often ordered to stay away from miners, she refused to do so and frequently challenged the armed guards to shoot her. Mother Jones focused on the issue of child labor as well. In 1903, Mother Jones led a childrens march from Kensington, Pennsylvania, to New York to protest child labor to President Roosevelt. In 1905, Mother Jones was among the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the Wobblies). She worked within the political system as well, and was a founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1898. Later Years In the 1920s, as rheumatism made it more difficult for her to get around, Mother Jones wrote her Autobiography of Mother Jones. Famed lawyer Clarence Darrow wrote an introduction to the book. Mother Jones became less active as her health failed. She moved to Maryland and lived with a retired couple. Death One of her last public appearances was at a birthday celebration on May 1, 1930, when she claimed to be 100. (May 1 is the international labor holiday in most of the world.) This birthday was celebrated at workers events around the country. Mother Jones died on November 30 of that year. She was buried at the Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois, at her request: It was the only cemetery owned by a union. Legacy Mother Jones was once labeled the most dangerous woman in America by a U.S. district attorney. Her activism left a strong mark on U.S. labor history. The 2001 biography by Elliott Gorn has added significantly to the details known of Mother Jones life and work. The radical political magazine Mother Jones is named for her and she remains a symbol for passionate labor activism. Sources Gorn, Elliott J. Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. Hill and Wang, 2001.Josephson, Judith P. Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter for Workers Rights. Lerner Publications, 1997.