The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Instructional Design
Emotional intelligence is an advantageous trait for instructional designers. Instructional design is not a field where you keep your head down and get on with your work independently. If that’s what you want, I would suggest pursuing eLearning Developer roles.
No, as an instructional designer, I have to navigate different personalities on projects. There are SMEs, product owners, project managers, and customers to wrangle. My responsibility is to draw information from all of these audiences and package it up into an impactful learning experience.
Instructional designers have to be very direct in order to be proactive. If you are avoidant, you will be scrambling to react to product news and that is a stressful situation to be in. I ask a lot of clear and straightforward questions to get the information I need.
We also have to consider multiple perspectives when building learning experiences. Empathy goes a long way. Will the learner really want to watch 40 videos in a row? Is it worth taking the extra 20 minutes to add captions if not everyone will use them?
Other skills related to emotional intelligence include cultivating alignment and managing expectations. Not everyone can have their way on a project. You may need to navigate conflicting opinions about the best approach, and get everyone on board.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: soft people skills such as emotional intelligence are just as important, if not more important, than technical skills in instructional design.
