Emotional Intelligence Starts with Self-Awareness

by Dan Angelo

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions effectively to navigate social situations and achieve goals. Rich Bracken showed that caring for oneself is where it begins.

Bracken, an award-winning keynote speaker, thought leader, and consultant focused on emotional intelligence, was the featured speaker at the Sunday afternoon Main Stage event at CAMEX26 in Phoenix, AZ. He’s also an accomplished DJ and sprinkled in dance music throughout the presentation to get his points across.

“This session is about you,” he told the audience. “We’ve talked about how we talk to other people and how we manage other things and how we get through the day and how we get through inventory, but the heartbeat of your campus starts with you.”

To Bracken, everyone needs emotional intelligence to understand and manage their day. They also need to be understanding to navigate the emotional intelligence of others.

Emotional intelligence boils down to self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, according to Bracken. His research on the topic showed that 58% of someone’s performance on a day-to-day basis involves emotional intelligence and 70% of an employee’s view of a company’s culture has to do with the leader’s emotional intelligence.

In addition, companies and leaders that focus on emotional intelligence report 76% more engagement and 61% more creativity, particularly when dealing with younger employees, such as campus store student workers.

“Engage them. Ask them questions. Ask their opinions, and you will be shocked at how creative they can be,” Bracken said. “When I engage younger employees, I learn something, and I get better. They come up with creative solutions because they see things in a different light.”

He added that success for an organization is 22 times more likely when leaders prioritize their own emotional intelligence and that of those around them. That requires the self-awareness to empathize with themselves and others.

“Stop overloading yourselves,” Bracken said. “Take the time during the day to tune in with yourself. It’s understanding that we have to deal with those emotions, because they are going to come whether you like it or not.”

For the leader in the campus store, social awareness might be the most critical issue when it comes down to emotional intelligence and how to deal with it. It’s the ability to understand situations and figure out what other people might need.

“It’s critical that we listen, that we listen intently, and that we ask questions,” Bracken said. “We have to make people feel seen and heard. It’s important because now we’re more connected as a society, but we’re more disconnected as a people than we’ve ever been.”

The top way to increase emotional intelligence is prioritizing time and setting boundaries when it comes to that time. Creating a routine that provides a person with five minutes to regroup before a meeting, or for a couple of minutes to themselves during the day, can work wonders.

Taking just a couple of minutes to listen to one song or grab a drink of water can help calm a person. The campus store leader owes it to themselves, their staff, and customers to figure out what helps them become their best that day.

“We do not invest enough in self-care,” Bracken said. “If you are not taking care of yourself, if you are not optimizing your behavior, if you’re not getting in the right mindset to bounce back from things, if you are not planning your goals, if you’re not planning your day to say, ‘World, this is me,’ then you are missing out on the opportunity to succeed, be happier, and be less stressed.

“Figure out what you need to do to be your best self today through self-care and believe in yourself,” he added. “You are capable. You are brilliantly talented. You work extremely hard, and you can do anything you set your mind to. So go find your best self.”