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In New South Wales and in particular Sydney, the business environment is growing and vibrant. As with any community that grows at this pace, we need more talent and leadership, and there are many people who are trying hard to find their niche in this area.

One set of traits that will assist you in getting ahead in this market is tapping into your emotional intelligence, or EI. There are a lot of competing definitions of EI, most of which are part of a multi-model view of intelligence.

Put simply, people with a high emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) are better at reading other people’s emotions. This makes it easier for them to read the emotions in a room of their coworkers, and helps them isolate problems with a business before the problem festers and comes to a head.

If you have a high emotional intelligence quotient, or EQ, you can be identified in the workplace because you can use your own changing moods to focus on different parts of a project. Yes, you’re good at reading other people’s emotions, true, but are also good at identifying your own. This means that you can suit your mood to the task at hand. For example, if you have a high EQ, you are more likely to switch to a task within a project that suits your current emotional mood, rather than trying to “beat your head against a wall” if you’re stuck on one aspect and just not getting anywhere.

When thinking about how to use your emotional intelligence in the work place, look at it as a way of getting “sneak peeks” at what other people are thinking. Being able to “read” people’s moods from body language and facial expressions is a competitive advantage in any situation where you’re negotiating or arranging a contract. Indeed, if you have a rough idea how quickly someone reads, you can often find their unguarded reaction to some contract language as they’re reading it.

If you’re ready to move into a leadership position or you’re already in one, the second aspect of emotional intelligence also comes into play. This is what may be called “charisma” or the ability to lead people. If you have a high EQ as someone in a leadership position, you know what to tell others so that they can work most efficiently and effectively, you know how to get someone to work a little bit harder so as to break through a problem, and you know how to read someone’s body language so that you can step in and offer assistance, give someone a pat on the back, or a nod of appreciation.

Having emotional intelligence can be a somewhat useful skill in public speaking, too, but it’s best if you use it in small groups or in one-on-one situations. You can likely enhance it with practice, but you can only push it so far.

All businesses, of course, value people who can “get along well with others.” However, emotional intelligence’s model indicates that this isn’t necessarily something you can learn. Whether or not that’s true, being aware of how you fit in on the emotional intelligence scale and being aware of what both your abilities and limitations are as you use this ability to advance your career or to better serve your clients with your own business can only help you.