What is Self-Management?

You may have heard leadership gurus say something along the lines of, “EQ is more important than IQ.” However, you may not know what EQ is or how to increase it.

Emotional Intelligence (often abbreviated “EQ”), is a leadership skill that focuses on one’s personal and social competencies. There are four components to emotional intelligence:

1. Self-Awareness
2. Self-Management
3. Social Awareness
4. Relationship Management

This post will focus on Self-Management. In their book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves define self-management as “Your ability to use awareness of your emotions to actively choose what you say and do” (p. 97).

It’s one thing to understand your emotions, it’s another thing to control your emotions. This is why self-management is important. Because of this, self-management and self-awareness go hand in hand. Self-awareness is knowing what stresses you out. Self-management is knowing how to control that stress. To be an emotionally intelligent leader, you need to learn how to manage your emotions.

Think about it: How can you better manage your emotions?

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If your interested in learning more about EQ, check out the accompanying posts:

• What is Emotional Intelligence?
• What is Self-Awareness?
• What is Social Awareness?
• What is Relational Management?