Emotional intelligence refers to our ability to understand and manage our own emotions and those of others. According to Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, social awareness is a key element of emotional intelligence. Social and emotional skills can greatly impact the quality of our lives, our relationships, and our work.

We are social beings. We are meant to be in community with others. Being able to connect, communicate, and collaborate with others influences all areas of our personal and professional lives. Social awareness is the ability to read the room, see things from other people’s perspectives, sense and understand the emotional needs of others, and show empathy.

Social awareness develops during childhood as we learn to pick up on social cues, norms, and expectations through our interactions with those around us. Our social awareness is shaped and deepened further as we begin to engage with diverse communities and navigate more complex situations and environments.

Recognizing the emotions, needs, and perspectives of others doesn’t always come naturally. Learning to recognize and understand our own emotions can be helpful to be able to understand the feelings of others. I shared some practices that can help us become more emotionally self-aware in my previous post.

Effective relationship management, or knowing how to interact with people in a “well way,” often relies on strong social........

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