By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
This was disclosed during an emotional intelligence seminar held by the NGO in Lagos targeting women in agro-allied businesses, as part of its efforts to encourage more women in agriculture.
The Convener of the initiative, Efe Anaughe, said the ability to express one’s thoughts clearly and to seek clarifications in a respectful and non-disagreeable manner is vital to nurturing emotional intelligence.
“As women in agro-allied businesses, they need to apply emotional intelligence to achieve peak performance and advancement. In life, this is more than a gripping call for some conscious adjustments. It is a compass to help everyone nurture, manage, control, and dispense the right and healthy emotions for everyday affairs.”
Anaughe added that, “promoting agro-allied businesses, we need an effective strategy and a way women in that business can achieve building personal brand with emotional intelligence.”
The keynote speaker at the event, a Business Director of Empretec-Unctad Nigeria and Africa Regional Trainer for the International Trade Centre (ITC), Dr. Lemmy Omoyinmi, who delivered a paper on “The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business,” said being self-aware is an extremely useful skill to have. “It would help you to know your own strengths, limits, desires, and fears. It means you can tackle challenges and opportunities with more success,” Omoyinmi said.
He stressed the need for closer interactions and sustained relationships with farmers and other stakeholders, saying the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously is linked to emotional intelligence.
“Agricultural businesses involve interacting and dealing with people belonging to different stakeholder groups. As someone in the agro-allied business, you need interpersonal relationships, one must possess emotional intelligence skill for substantial growth. Technology transfer occurs in a social context involving working with different people, skills and competencies of the cognitive domain.”
He added that the key to Business Emotional Intelligence is self-awareness and awareness of others. It explains people’s capability to manage their emotions and behaviours at work and what effect it has on their potential and their performance.
