Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence Is Good for Business

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In today’s real estate world, brokerage owners are getting hit from all sides by the competition. They have to make dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions on a daily or weekly basis just to stay ahead. A lot of those decisions are often driven by a gut feeling or emotion.

But emotions can run high and low, and basing business decisions on them can often negatively impact your company’s bottom line. So, how do you take the emotion rollercoaster out of decision-making? Start by increasing your emotional intelligence.

Emotionally intelligent people see things more clearly; they have a quiet confidence that helps them handle the challenges of life. It involves high interpersonal skills and the ability to interpret emotions—your own and other people’s feelings. People with high EQ don’t let emotions take over rational thought; thus, they have fewer highs and lows.

A key to success in any business is having a high level of emotional intelligence. Here at Weichert, our most profitable franchisees are those that don’t let emotions rule their decisions. They leverage the systems we provide to help them maintain an even keel for their business and eliminate the highs and lows. By blocking out emotional “noise” and sticking to a system, they can focus on the right things to help them make emotionally intelligent decisions that move them toward their goals.

Here are three easy-to-follow strategies to help increase your emotional intelligence.

1. Develop self-awareness. A key element of EQ is self-awareness. This means being consistently aware of your feelings so you can keep them under control and understand how they affect you in your day-to-day work. Anytime you lose control of your emotions, you’re going to make a mistake. An emotionally intelligent person understands that while you can’t control everything that affects your business, your reaction will impact what comes next.

2. Create good daily habits. The most successful people in life—including Jim Weichert, the founder and chairman of Weichert Companies—have good daily habits. Doing so helped Jim build a single real estate office into one of the nation’s leading providers of homeownership services. Jim’s belief in a simple three-step process—or system—built around goal setting, scheduling tasks, and managing productivity has also helped countless Weichert affiliated brokerages succeed. 

3. Strive to understand others better. Real estate is the quintessential people business, and no one knows that better than Jim. He always says, “People buy people before they buy a product.” So, be genuine and honest in your conversations with clients, and admit when you don’t know the answer to something. Make it a point to also actively listen to your clients’ needs and concerns, instead of just waiting for a chance to speak. This helps build a rapport and empathy with customers. It also helps customers open up to you. As a result, you and your team gain key insights on how best to improve your customer’s sales experience. And with these key elements in place, higher sales results are sure to follow.

Like anything in life, you get out of it what you put in. And real estate is no different. It’s all up to you and your effort. Increasing your emotional intelligence is going to take a lot of work, practice, and persistence, but it’s worth the effort. Real estate is a fast-moving industry filled with distractions that can easily lead to snap decisions. The exciting thing about EQ and developing good habits and self-confidence is that it’s something you can control that will have an enormous impact on your happiness and success.