Emotional Intelligence: The Definitive Guide
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The Definitive Guide
Emotional intelligence (EI) is an important life skill that helps us navigate emotions – not just in ourselves, but also in others.
With the global move to holistic living and remote working; EI is of utmost importance in the modern workplace.
A recent paper published in the Journal of Leadership and Organisational Studies has revealed that individuals with generally higher levels of emotional
intelligence experienced lower levels of stress while leading remotely during the pandemic.
This article will highlight the fundamentals of EI on personal and professional fronts.
So if you want to:
(a) Understand EI and its components
(b) Incorporate day-to-day practices of EI
(c) Recognize the levels of EI, personally and professionally
(d) Harbor long term benefits of EI
This article will be of real value to you.
Let’s get right into it!
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Chapter 1
The Fundamentals (EI or IQ)
Chapter 2
Models & Components of EI
Chapter 4
Day to Day Uses of EI
Chapter 5
Long Term Benefits of EI
Chapter 7
Why we need EI at Work
Chapter 1:
The Fundamentals (EI or IQ)
Emotion is the natural precursor to thought.
An emotionally heightened situation results in a change not only in decision-making and interpersonal skills but also has a diminishing effect on cognitive abilities.
This unique process allows for the development of self-awareness and reflection in aspects in and out of the office. Especially the ability to reflect and impact individuals within one’s sphere of influence.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (EI or sometimes EQ / Emotional Quotient) is a relatively modern concept and was only fully developed in the mid-1990s.
Mayer & Salovey, the pioneers of the concept of EI, define it as – Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.
The Origin & History of the Term
As early as the 1930s, psychologist Edward Thorndike described the concept of "social intelligence" as the ability to get along with other people.
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15(3), 197–215. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20447229
During the 1940s, psychologist David Wechsler proposed that different effective components of intelligence could play an important role in how successful people are in life.
In 1990, psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer published their landmark article, Emotional Intelligence in the journal ‘Imagination, Cognition, and Personality’.
They defined emotional intelligence as "the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions."
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
“The emotions we create and how we manage them to play a most significant role in determining how we perform internally and, then, externally,” said Parker et al in their 2016 paper.
Emotions drive thoughts – thoughts drive behavior – behavior drives action.
The thing with emotional intelligence is – it permeates every aspect of your life.
Being emotionally intelligent is associated with academic and professional success, financial stability, fulfilling relationships, life satisfaction, as well as better physical and mental health.
Every endeavor in life requires you to make decisions. And if you let your emotions, without intelligence, consistently ruin your decisions, you likely won’t get very far.
A logical assumption is that people with higher IQs will be more successful at work and throughout life. This assumption has been proven incorrect – there is more to success than simply being ‘clever’.
EI has consistently been shown to be a critical factor in leadership effectiveness – from managing change to working with teams to navigating interpersonal relationships.
In his 1995 bestseller ‘Emotional Intelligence,’ Daniel Goleman argued that EI outweighed cognitive intelligence as the best predictor of business success
Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2017). Human Resource Management, 6th Edition: Theory and Practice.
