You’re a community organizer and feeling overwhelmed. How can Emotional Intelligence help you manage stress?

2 Why EI matters for community organizing?

EI is essential for community organizing as it allows you to connect with people, inspire them, and influence them. Through building rapport and trust with diverse groups, you can communicate effectively and persuasively, using verbal and nonverbal cues, active listening, and feedback. Additionally, EI can help you manage your emotions and stress when facing resistance, criticism, or setbacks. It also enables you to handle conflicts and disagreements through empathy, assertiveness, and negotiation skills. Moreover, EI allows you to lead and motivate others through vision, values, and recognition. Lastly, it helps you work in teams through cooperation, coordination, and creativity.

3 How to practice EI in four steps?

Practicing emotional intelligence (EI) requires you to observe and express your emotions, regulate them, and use them to your advantage. Firstly, pay attention to how you feel in different situations, what triggers your emotions, and how they affect your thoughts and actions. You can record your emotions and their causes and consequences with a journal, a mood tracker, or a reflection tool. Secondly, find healthy and constructive ways to communicate your emotions to yourself and others, such as words, gestures, art, or music. Additionally, seek support from others who can listen to you and validate your feelings. Thirdly, learn to cope with your emotions and prevent them from interfering with your goals. Relaxation techniques such as breathing or exercise can help calm yourself down. Cognitive strategies such as reframing or replacing negative thoughts with positive ones can also help change your perspective. Finally, use your emotions to enhance performance and creativity. Harnessing emotions can motivate yourself, generate ideas, solve problems, influence others, empathize with others, understand their feelings and needs, and respond accordingly.

4 How to apply EI to community organizing?

You can apply EI to community organizing by using it in various aspects of your work, such as planning, mobilizing, acting, and negotiating. When planning, use self-awareness and self-management skills to set goals, identify strengths and weaknesses, and monitor progress. Additionally, use social awareness and relationship management skills to involve others in the planning process and delegate tasks. For mobilizing, use self-awareness and self-management skills to generate enthusiasm and confidence, while using social awareness and relationship management skills to identify potential supporters. When acting, use self-awareness and self-management skills to prepare for actions and celebrate achievements, while using social awareness and relationship management skills to coordinate with team members and communicate clearly with target audiences. Lastly, when negotiating use self-awareness and self-management skills to clarify interests and positions, while using social awareness and relationship management skills to understand the interests of the other party.