Ditch the mob mentality and increase EQ to be better at business

Connect with your clients through emotional intelligence

You’ve heard it before. The key to being a great agent—(or a great businessperson in general, for that matter), is to form authentic connections with your clients and prospective customers. To really, fully understand them.

Developing deeper, more honest connections is dependent upon being open to new perspectives and ideas. Everyone who walks through your door has come from a different place, and has lived a unique life. Their experiences and therefore perspectives are ultimately their own, and these things greatly impact the ways in which they perceive the world.

To truly connect with an infinitely varied group of people requires something of you: strong emotional intelligence, or EQ. Having a strong EQ is linked to being open to looking at situations through a variety of lenses, rather than looking at the world through your eyes only and having a “my way is the right way” mentality. This more singular, limiting thought process can also be described as “mob mentality” and it can cause all sorts of negative consequences, from anger, resentment and divisiveness to a striking lack of political, religious or personal tolerance.

Strong emotional intelligence is something that has to be repeatedly practiced. We aren’t just born with it. Essentially, it grows within you as you continue to work on it. You can practice EQ by keeping a few things in mind while you talk to new people and look around at the world:

• Realize that there is very rarely an absolutely correct answer; things are grey much more than they are black or white

• Remember that we are imperfect people who make mistakes, and that our actions do not wholly define us

• Let go of preconceived notions about people and things that have no factual basis

• Focus on fostering an “I never thought of it that way” mentality, which will help keep your brain open to learning new perspectives and ideas and allow new acquaintances to teach you things

• Work to postpone judgements: this is easier said than done and requires lots of conscious effort

Outside of repeated, steady practice, the thing that most helps us to gain valuable emotional intelligence is experience. The more experiences we have in life, and the more varied that experience is, the more our emotional intelligence will grow. Work to regularly step outside of your “comfort zone” and away from all that is familiar, and learn new things by living new experiences. You will notice that as you commit yourself to practicing this, you’ll develop new understandings, new skills and new wisdom, and you’ll be able to connect with each new person who walks through your door like never before.

Lindsey is a proud wife and mom with a passion for culture, travel and carbs. When she isn’t planning her next Disney cruise, she’s usually chasing her dogs, hanging with her children or anxiously awaiting another date night with her husband.