What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as EQ ("emotional quotient"), refers to a person's

ability to recognize, understand, manage, and reason with emotions.

SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Social Awareness

Competence Attribute

Empathy Individuals with this competence

• Are attentive to emotional cues and listen well;

• Show sensitivity and understand others' perspectives; and

• Help out based on understanding other people's needs and feelings

Service Orientation Individuals with this competence

• Understand customers' needs and match them to services or products;

• Seek ways to increase customers' satisfaction and loyalty;

• Gladly offer appropriate assistance; and

• Grasp a customer's perspective, acting as a trusted advisor.

Developing Others Individuals with this competence

• Acknowledge and reward people's strengths, accomplishments, and

development;

• Offer useful feedback and identify people's needs for development;

and

• Mentor, give timely coaching, and offer assignments that challenge

and grow a person's skills.

Leveraging Diversity Individuals with this competence

• Respect and relate well to people from varied backgrounds;

 • Understand diverse worldviews and are sensitive to group differences;

• See diversity as opportunity, creating an environment where diverse

people can thrive; and

• Challenge bias and intolerance.

Political Awareness Individuals with this competence

• Accurately read key power relationships;

• Detect crucial social networks;

• Understand the forces that shape views and actions of clients,

customers, or competitors; and

• Accurately read situations and organizational and external realities.

Influence Individuals with this competence

• Are skilled at persuasion;

• Fine-tune presentations to appeal to the listener;

• Use complex strategies like indirect influence to build consensus and

support; and

• Orchestrate dramatic events to effectively make a point.

Communication Individuals with this competence

• Are effective in give-and-take, registering emotional cues in attuning

their message;

• Deal with difficult issues straightforwardly.

• Listen well, seek mutual understanding, and welcome sharing of

information fully; and

• Foster open communication and stay receptive to bad news as well as

good.

Leadership Individuals with this competence

• Articulate and arouse enthusiasm for a shared vision and mission;

• Step forward to lead as needed, regardless of position;

• Guide the performance of others while holding them accountable; and

• Lead by example.
Social Skills

Competence Attribute

Change Catalyst Individuals with this competence

• Recognize the need for change and remove barriers;

• Challenge the status quo to acknowledge the need for change;

• Champion the change and enlist others in its pursuit; and

• Model the change expected of others.

Conflict Management Individuals with this competence

• Handle difficult people and tense situations with diplomacy and tact;

• Spot potential conflict, bring disagreements into the open, and help
deescalate;

• Encourage debate and open discussion; and • Orchestrate win-win

solutions.

Building Bonds Individuals with this competence

• Cultivate and maintain extensive informal networks;

• Seek out relationships that are mutually beneficial;

• Build rapport and keep others in the loop; and

• Make and maintain personal friendships among work associates.

Collaboration and Cooperation Individuals with this competence

• Balance a focus on task with attention to relationships;

• Collaborate, sharing plans, information, and resources;

• Promote a friendly and cooperative climate; and

• Spot and nurture opportunities for collaboration.

Team Capabilities Individuals with this competence

• Model team qualities such as respect, helpfulness, and cooperation;

• Draw all members into active and enthusiastic participation;

 • Build team identity, esprit de corps, and commitment; and

• Protect the group and its reputation and share credit.

Why is emotional intelligence so important?

As we know, it’s not the smartest people who are the most successful or the most fulfilled in life.
You probably know people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and
unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. Intellectual ability or your intelligence
quotient (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to achieve success in life. Yes, your IQ can help you get
into college, but it’s your EQ that will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing
your final exams. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they build off one
another.

Emotional intelligence affects:

 Your performance at school or work.

High emotional intelligence can help you navigate the social complexities of the workplace, lead
and motivate others, and excel in your career. In fact, when it comes to gauging important job
candidates, many companies now rate emotional intelligence as important as technical ability
and employ EQ testing before hiring.

 Your physical health.

If you’re unable to manage your emotions, you are probably not managing your stress either.
This can lead to serious health problems. Uncontrolled stress raises blood pressure, suppresses
the immune system, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, contributes to infertility, and
speeds up the aging process. The first step to improving emotional intelligence is to learn how to
manage stress.

 Your mental health.

Uncontrolled emotions and stress can also impact your mental health, making you vulnerable to
anxiety and depression. If you are unable to understand, get comfortable with, or manage your
emotions, you’ll also struggle to form strong relationships. This in turn can leave you feeling
lonely and isolated and further exacerbate any mental health problems.

 Your relationships.
By understanding your emotions and how to control them, you’re better able to express how you
feel and understand how others are feeling. This allows you to communicate more effectively
and forge stronger relationships, both at work and in your personal life.

Psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, two of the leading researchers on the topic,
define emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and
others. This ability also involves using this emotional understanding to make decisions, solve
problems, and communicate with others.

ABILITY MODEL

According to Salovey and Mayer, there are four different levels of emotional intelligence (The
Ability Model) :
 Perceiving emotions
 Reasoning with emotions
 Understanding emotions
 Managing emotions

 Perceiving emotions – Through facial expression, body language, pictures, voices, and
so on, a person can recognize the emotions of others. This also includes the individual's
ability to recognize and identify their own emotions as well. Emotion perception is
generally thought to be a very basic aspect of Emotional Intelligence, because it is
necessary to complete any of the other processes involved in the Ability Model. In fact,
the difficulty that people on the autism spectrum have with learning social cues is related
to their inability, or limited ability, to recognize the emotions of others through their
expressions; they often lack the ability to recognize the facial and body expressions of
others that communicate their feelings.

 Using emotions – the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities,
such as thinking and problem-solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize
fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand. In practical
terms, think of a child who knows the best time to ask their parents for permission to do
 something; the child who asks for permission during a time when a parent is fearful,
anxious, or angry, is less likely to be successful at using emotions. However, if they
strike while the iron is hot and use any goodwill their parent has at the moment to their
advantage, they are more likely to achieve their desired outcome.

 Understanding emotions – This ability is built upon an understanding of the complexity

of emotions. While many people have the ability to recognize basic facial expressions,
fewer of them are able to predictably recognize and understand emotion language and to
appreciate the nuances of complex emotional relationships. A lower ability to understand
emotions may present itself in someone who struggles with understanding why a death or
divorce may result in seemingly conflicted emotions all at the same time.

 Managing emotions – the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others.
Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones,
and manage them to achieve intended goals. For example, a supervisor at a job may
recognize that an employee is struggling with something emotionally and it is affecting
their work. The supervisor (if they have a high level of Emotional Intelligence, according
to the Ability Model) may be able to help motivate the employee by meeting their
emotional needs through pep talks, a heart-to-heart conversation, or even a spirit of
competition -- whatever that individual employee will respond to. In this type of
situation, the emotional manipulation is positive for both the individual being
manipulated or affected, as well as solving the problem of having an ineffective worker.

Why EQ Is Important for Success ?

Interest in emotion psychology and the concept of emotional intelligence really caught fire with
the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman's book "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter
More Than IQ." In the book, Goleman argued that emotional intelligence was critical for
predicting success in life. Emotional competencies, he argued, also played a particularly
important role in the workplace.

Why EQ Matters in the Workplace ?

Why is emotional intelligence such a valued workplace skill? According to one survey of hiring
managers, almost 75% of respondents suggested that they valued an employee's EQ more than
their IQ.

Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a valuable skill that helps improve

communication, management, problem-solving, and relationships within the workplace. It is also
a skill that researchers believe can be improved with training and practice.

The concept quickly attracted the attention of the public, including human resource managers
and business leaders. Researchers have suggested that emotional intelligence influences how
well employees interact with their colleagues, and EQ is also thought to play a role in how
workers manage stress and conflict. It also affects overall performance on the job. Other studies
have linked emotional intelligence with job satisfaction.

Studies have shown that employees with higher scores on measures of EQ also tend to be rated
higher on measures of interpersonal functioning, leadership abilities, and stress management.

Goleman suggested that while traditional intelligence was associated with leadership success, it
alone was not enough. People who are successful at work aren't just smart—they also have a
high EQ.

People With High EQ People With Low EQ

Play the role of the victim or avoid taking

Make better decisions and solve problems
responsibility for errors

Have passive or aggressive communication

Keep cool under pressure
styles

Resolve conflicts Refuse to work as a team

Are overly critical of others or dismiss

Have greater empathy
others' opinions
 Listen, reflect, and respond to constructive
criticism

But emotional intelligence is not just for CEOs and senior managers. It's a quality that's
important at every level of a person's career, from college students looking for internships to
seasoned employees hoping to take on a leadership role. If you want to succeed in the workplace
and move up the career ladder, emotional intelligence is critical to your success.

How to Become More Emotionally Intelligent?

While emotional skills may come naturally to some people, there are things that anyone can do
to help improve their ability to understand and reason with emotions. This can be particularly
helpful in the workplace, where relationships and business decisions often rely on the
interpersonal understanding, teamwork, and communication.