Understanding your behavioral style is a powerful career advantage, but when you pair it with emotional intelligence, you unlock the door to next-level personal and professional success. Here are five ways to elevate behavior with emotional intelligence. 

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply emotions for higher levels of collaboration and productivity.It examines five key areas relating to intrapersonal and interpersonal relations: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social awareness, and social regulation. EQ is both measurable and trainable. The five dimensions can be improved over time with work and focus. 

What is the Tie Between Behavior and EQ? 

Every behavioral type can benefit from focusing on EQ. “Behavior is what we do, and EQ helps us understand why we do it,” said Angie Lion, co-founder of Black River Performance Management. “The two are deeply connected. Emotional intelligence brings self-awareness to the surface so we can recognize the emotions, triggers, and habits driving our behaviors, especially under pressure.” 

Specific dimensions of emotional intelligence will help different behaviors more than others. 

“Some of our biggest behavioral strengths can actually become overextensions when we’re not self-aware or when we lack the skills to regulate ourselves,” said Lion. “A strong drive can turn into control. Empathy can lead to emotional exhaustion. Assertiveness can cross into aggression. These aren’t flaws. They’re signals that it’s time to pause and adjust. When we know better, we can do better.” 

While every behavioral style looks different under pressure, controlling yourself and influencing others’ perceptions of you is crucial for your professional success. Developing EQ can help you regulate your reactions and elevate your behavior from a crisis to a bonus.

How EQ Enhances Behavior Regulation

Self-Awareness → Spotting Patterns Early

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on others.

It’s more than just being in touch with your emotions—it’s the conscious ability to recognize and understand your own moods, emotions, and internal drivers, and how those factors influence your behavior and interactions with others. 

Use self-awareness to learn more about yourself and spot your internal patterns. Tuning in and focusing on your actions and reactions will help you recognize emotional triggers before they lead to unwanted behaviors. 

For example, if you’re getting frustrated with a coworker, a strong sense of self-awareness will help you discover the true origin of your irritation. Maybe they remind you of your own traits that you dislike, or they have a conflicting behavioral style and aren’t taking yours into account. By recognizing your own heightened emotions while actively examining the situation, you can understand your needs and emotional blindspots. 

“I realized that my tendency to jump in and fix things was once a strength, but in certain situations, it kept others from growing and left me depleted,” Lion shared. “With more self-awareness and emotional regulation, I’ve learned to pause, ask better questions, and trust the process.”

Self-Regulation → Creating Space Between Stimulus and Response

Self-regulation is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment and think before acting. 

It helps you take an intentional pause, allowing you to reframe emotional impulses in a way that aligns with your long-term goals. 

Instead of reacting immediately, high self-regulation helps empower you to take responsibility for your feelings, allowing for clear, level-headed decision-making. It helps you choose conscious, constructive responses. 

“I’ve seen leaders transform the energy of a team by recognizing when their own behavior was creating tension, not because they meant to, but because they hadn’t yet built the skill of slowing down and responding with intention,” Lion shared. “That’s the gift of EQ. It gives us more choices.” 

Motivation → Keeping Behavior Aligned with Purpose

Motivation in EQ is the emotional energy directed toward personally meaningful goals. 

It reflects the degree to which you pursue objectives with purpose, energy, and persistence. When motivation is fueled by emotional commitment and aligned with personal values, it shapes your direction, engagement, and progress over time.

Motivation helps you align with purpose instead of being driven by impulse. Instead of behavioral patterns bogging you down when you face challenges or difficulties, well-developed motivation steers you back to center. If your behavior is getting in your way, leaning into purpose-driven focus can give you the momentum needed to move forward. 

For example, if you make a mistake at work, you might be frustrated and disappointed. Instead of lashing out with heightened emotion, your motivation can help you slow down and process before moving forward. 

You can turn the mistake into a learning opportunity by leaning into your motivation: the desire to be a top performer. It’ll help you find the reason for the mistake while problem-solving, so it doesn’t happen again. Motivation is your buffer against reactive behavior. 

Social Awareness → Understanding Impact

Social awareness is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and how your words and actions affect others. 

It plays a crucial role in understanding and improving behavior, both for individuals and within teams. Developed social awareness helps you understand the emotions and perspectives of others, read social cues, and respond by adapting tone, language, and timing as needed. 

For example, you might deliver what you think is good news about a project, but notice that the people around you are responding strangely. Your social awareness can help you cue into their response and pivot, redirecting the conversation until you can get the information you need to truly understand. Instead of just barreling forward with your excitement, you can observe and react, keeping everyone else in mind. 

Developed social awareness increases trust and collaboration, prevents misunderstandings, and helps make connections more meaningful. 

Social Regulation → Navigating Relationships with Intention

Social regulation is the ability to manage interactions, adapt communication, and respond appropriately to the emotions of others.

It allows individuals to stay composed in tense moments, defuse conflict, and influence outcomes through calm, respectful behavior.

It helps elevate behavior by protecting you in high-tension social situations. For example, if you’re an Outgoing communicator, you tend to dislike conflict and want to smooth things over, whereas a Reserved communicator can regress into irritation and sarcasm in tense situations. If these two opposite behavioral types are in conflict with each other, their natural behaviors will aggravate each other. 

However, if both of them lean into social regulation, they can overcome the behavioral barrier by adapting their communication. An Outgoing communicator with well-developed social regulation skills will know to back off and give the Reserved communicator space, while the Reserved person can respond without shutting down and focus on giving the Outgoing teammate the warmer approach they need.

Elevating behavior with emotional intelligence will strengthen your relationships, improve your communication skills, and help you learn about yourself and others. 

“Improving EQ starts with compassion, not criticism,” Lion said. “It’s not about fixing yourself. It’s about understanding yourself so you can show up more effectively for others, and for yourself.” 

If you want to learn more about your behavior and EQ, TTI can help. Contact us here.