Emotion abilities have been shown to be beneficial at work, yet it remains surprisingly unclear how people can be encouraged to utilize their potential. To leverage emotion abilities for individuals during teamwork, our study experimentally tested interventions that aimed to increase the application of emotion abilities. A total of 267 participants received one of three types of weekly reflection exercises (focused either on other-focused emotion recognition, other-focused emotion regulation, or a task-focused control condition). Results suggested no direct relationship to individual performance for either initial emotion abilities or the designed intervention. Instead, only participants who had higher initial levels of emotional intelligence performed better over time when they completed a weekly intervention that encouraged them to reflect on the emotion regulation of others, compared to the control condition. Theoretically, our research underlines first, the need for EI scholarship to incorporate the context in which EI operates; second, the value of differentiating other-focused abilities; and third, that effects of EI abilities may not be immediate but can unfold over time. Practically, our research suggests that the application of other-focused emotion abilities can be encouraged at work to increase performance, while also calling for caution when designing and implementing one-size-fits-all solutions.
