The importance of Emotional Intelligence in Coaching

There is more and more talk about the importance of promoting in all individuals what is known as emotional intelligence. An intelligence that, as its own name indicates, is focused on emotions, and that can be developed by the human being like other intelligences whose learning is fostered from childhood in the educational centers themselves, such as linguistic-verbal or Mathematical logician.

Although everyone should work on this intelligence, a professional coach must have it specially developed because in a coaching process, the emotional sphere is key both for him to be able to carry out his work efficiently, and to help his client achieve his objectives.

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What is emotional intelligence?

Before determining the exact reasons why Emotional Intelligence should be fine developed in a professional coach, it is convenient to understand well what this type of coaching is or consists of. intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence, broadly speaking, would be

the individual's ability to recognise, understand and manage the emotions of themselves, and those of others, effectively.

In other words, developing this intelligence implies first knowing what emotions are, but also understanding why they arise, detecting how they do and what must be done when they appear so as not to be 'kidnapped' by them, but to capture their message to use it in our benefit.

But in addition to this more intrapersonal part, developing Emotional Intelligence also means working on the capacity to understand the emotions of others, to develop empathy and the famous 'knowing how to put yourself in the other's shoes'.

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Why Emotional Intelligence is important in a Coaching process

Understanding what it means for an individual to have developed Emotional Intelligence is easier understand why it is vital that a person engaged in coaching have it especially worked.

On the one hand, In a coaching process it is key that the coach has emotional self-awareness and good self-regulation. The coaching professional is in front of a person who will be flooded with different emotional states, it being essential not only that the coach knows how to recognize them, but also that they be able to separate them from his own to maintain his skills of objectivity and active listening, and all without losing the ability to be empathetic with the client he has in front of.

On the other hand, as a coach, you must help the coachee to be aware of her emotions, that is, her knowledge in Emotional Intelligence should allow you to be a 'master' of that type of intelligence: make the client learn to develop also yours. And this is so because the management of the client's emotions is surely closely related to the results and objectives they wish to achieve. That is, his emotional management will have a direct impact on the outcome of the process.

For example, if a client comes to coaching with the aim of getting a job change, it is just as important that the coach helps the coachee in drawing up the plan to be able to determine the steps and actions to achieve another job, such as working with the client the limits that can hinder these steps and that on many occasions will come from the management of emotions such as frustration or discouragement.

We could say, therefore, that a coach, like other professionals dedicated to human assistance and accompaniment, have an arduous double task in emotional management and regulation: in addition to paying attention to their emotions triggered by this accompaniment, they must support the client so that they know how to pay attention and understand theirs.

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Being a professional in coaching and emotions

At D'Arte Human Business School we are aware not only of the importance that people who are trained as coaches know all the tools and methodology to be able to carry out ethical and truly professional coaching processes, but also how they should be trained in Emotional Intelligence so that their help is more effective and successful.

For this reason, our Master's Degree in Professional Coaching, in addition to teaching the profession of Coach, contains various modules dedicated to a comprehensive and complete training in Intelligence. Emotional, which together with the fact that it also includes the NLP Practitioner within its program, makes it one of the most complete Masters in Coaching on the market in the present.