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I am sure, almost all of us have heard of Emotional Intelligence by now, though it is a commonly used term, yet there are gaps in this area that needs to be addressed. So, what is Emotional Intelligence? It is the ability to know the best way and right extent to respond to a situation. For eg: Imagine, you are being followed by a tall strong man almost double your size with a knife in his hand., how would you respond? Would you turn around and fight him or run for your life? You just have a few seconds to decide, the decision will mostly be spontaneous, based on your existing level of emotional intelligence, these are real life situations when your emotional intelligence is tested. Since, you are weaker than the person stalking you, it is better to run as fast as you can and escape.
Daniel Goleman in his book "Emotional Intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ", explains why IQ, which was the only way a persons intelligence was tested for decades, may not be more important than EQ or Emotional Quotient.
Schools and colleges all over the world focus mainly on academic excellence, barring a few which have started using Emotional Intelligence in their curriculum. Most of the academic institutions lay emphasis, on subjects like math, linguistics and science, which are great, however, these can only test the Intelligence Quotient(IQ) of a person. High scores in these subjects were used as the measure for a successful life. However, we have seen many instances in real life where someone with a high IQ is sometimes unable to cope with the work environment, or colleagues, and so he/she quits. Even if they are promoted because of their excellent quality of work, they may not able to connect with people easily, and so after a while their progress stagnates. It has been observed in many organisations that employees with, a combination of an average Intelligence Quotient and average Emotional Quotient, go higher up the corporate ladder and even in life.
Since the importance of Emotional Intelligence has not been completely understood and incorporated in the education system, it is the duty of companies and the Emotional Intelligence Training Industry to step in and bridge this gap. If they want to see exponential growth in their organisations and the youth in general.
This video below gives a glimpse of how IQ plus EQ can integrate to form a better workplace.
Here are:
Self Regulation Tool- This tool is handy, when emotions start getting out of control. When there are arguments, and emotions fly high. Sometimes undesirable emotions come to the fore, and they need to be self regulated, else they would cause great damage. Some employees don't seem to feel any emotions, they have learnt to suppress their emotions, this can cause a flare up in the person who is trying to get some response from this "unemotional" person. It is, therefore important to have the ability to experience and express emotions moderately. If emotions go out of control they can destroy relationships and lives. Anger is one of most dangerous emotions, it gives the feeling of being powerful, but the after effects are always regretful. Other emotions like sadness, depression, anxiety if allowed to escalate can lead to paralysis, or numbness or losing interest in living. The belief that venting out emotions is good way to calm them down is not entirely true. The best way to deal with emotions would be to be aware of them first and find out why you are feeling that way, also try and look at the situation more objectively. What were the circumstances that led to the situation that is now causing this uncontrollable surge of emotions. Once you are able to see both sides of the situation, you will be able to cool down and find a more workable solution to the problem.
Self Motivation Tool- Self Motivation and motivating team members, as a tool has been used over decades now. However, without self awareness and self regulation it fails to have a long lasting impact on actions, desires and needs of a person. Everyone is not motivated same way, some feel more motivated than others. The goal that someone is trying to achieve may motivate them to forego certain pleasures now. Discipline to achieve those goals requires motivation. Having a positive outlook on life helps in motivating oneself better than if one is overwhelmed with fear and doubt and anxiety. A little bit of fear or anxiety is needed to motivate, if these are used positively to prepare oneself for the upcoming task then they can succeed. For e.g. if a new employee has been asked to make a presentation on a new topic, he/she may be afraid at first. However, once they decide that they are going to do their best in the given situation, all emotions that come thereafter only help in pushing them towards their goal. They become so engrossed in doing their work so well, that they are happy and satisfied with their performance and become oblivious to any negativity in their surroundings.
Empathy Building Tool- Is the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions. Empathy is feeling what the other person is feeling. We usually observe this while watching an emotional movie. When someone in the movie is being ill treated or is crying most of the audience begin to cry or feel sad, so if get so emotional while watching a movie which we all know is not real, how much more strongly might we feel when some painful incident is happening in front of us, in reality? In contrast, there are some people who do not know how feel their own emotions, let alone understand someone else's, these people may lack empathy due to being emotionally neglected or abused, growing up. Empathy is a very important tool for leadership in an organisation. When the leader is empathetic he recognizes what his team is trying to convey to him/ her even if they are not able to articulate their emotions correctly. This helps in building trust between the leader and his team, and thereby empowering the leader to move ahead and accept great challenges on behalf of the organisation, with the support of his/her team.
Social Skills Tool- This tool is essential to build healthy relationships at workplace or at home. Social skill is the ability to facilitate interaction and communication with others. Social skills include a certain level of self management of ones own emotions while trying to respond to another's need or problem. If cajoling, pleading and physical comfort techniques don't work then a more firm tone could work. Where in an attempt to stop the painful emotion, from going on, and causing more misery to the person, a firm warning to snap out of it, for a moment may just work. This distracts the person and forces them to take a step back and think of the consequences of continuing the destructive behaviour. Social Skills also have what is called as Emotional Contagion, where the emotions of people are passed on to others like a virus. For eg: in a situation where a person is sad about something, and a group of his friends show up to give him a surprise visit, he cheers up immediately and forgets about his misery for at least that short period of time.
Now, take a look at this 3 min video, and get a little more information on Emotional Intelligence:
Several measurement tools have been developed to grade what people score in terms of expertise in using these tools, positively or negatively, and in which EI tools they need to be trained in further?
Given below are some of the Tools to measure Emotional Intelligence
1. Abilities based- Similar to IQ MSCEIT
2. Trait based- Bar on EQ- i
3. Competency based- ECI
4. Behaviour based- Genos
5. Emotional and social competency inventory (ESCI). Daniel Goleman & Richard Boyatzis.
There are quite a few apps developed now that the EI Industry can use to help develop emotional Intelligence. These are a Smiling Mind, Mind Meter, Mitra, Stop Breathe and Think etc..
So, to conclude, taking into consideration all the real life situations listed above and understanding how a high IQ may help a person to get admissions into the best of schools and colleges and even the best of jobs, it is EQ which helps them navigate the twists and turns of life. Therefore, EI tools to understand oneself and others is of utmost value, in empowering individuals and thereby organisations, to discover emotionally intelligent solutions, to various challenges coming at them from all directions.
That's all for now, hope you found this post informative.
Please like, share, comment, follow and subscribe, for more articles on such and more topics.
Till we meet in my next post, bye and take care!
Welcome to my blog!
I am sure, almost all of us have heard of Emotional Intelligence by now, though it is a commonly used term, yet there are gaps in this area that needs to be addressed. So, what is Emotional Intelligence? It is the ability to know the best way and right extent to respond to a situation. For eg: Imagine, you are being followed by a tall strong man almost double your size with a knife in his hand., how would you respond? Would you turn around and fight him or run for your life? You just have a few seconds to decide, the decision will mostly be spontaneous, based on your existing level of emotional intelligence, these are real life situations when your emotional intelligence is tested. Since, you are weaker than the person stalking you, it is better to run as fast as you can and escape.
Daniel Goleman in his book "Emotional Intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ", explains why IQ, which was the only way a persons intelligence was tested for decades, may not be more important than EQ or Emotional Quotient.
Schools and colleges all over the world focus mainly on academic excellence, barring a few which have started using Emotional Intelligence in their curriculum. Most of the academic institutions lay emphasis, on subjects like math, linguistics and science, which are great, however, these can only test the Intelligence Quotient(IQ) of a person. High scores in these subjects were used as the measure for a successful life. However, we have seen many instances in real life where someone with a high IQ is sometimes unable to cope with the work environment, or colleagues, and so he/she quits. Even if they are promoted because of their excellent quality of work, they may not able to connect with people easily, and so after a while their progress stagnates. It has been observed in many organisations that employees with, a combination of an average Intelligence Quotient and average Emotional Quotient, go higher up the corporate ladder and even in life.
Since the importance of Emotional Intelligence has not been completely understood and incorporated in the education system, it is the duty of companies and the Emotional Intelligence Training Industry to step in and bridge this gap. If they want to see exponential growth in their organisations and the youth in general.
This video below gives a glimpse of how IQ plus EQ can integrate to form a better workplace.
Here are:
5 Tools everyone in the Emotional Intelligence Industry must be using:
Self Awareness Tool- This a necessary tool every industry should have. It enable one to identify ones own emotions and how they are responding to them. Being aware of emotions is one aspect of self awareness, each person has a different intensity with which they feel their emotions. Most people are taught to suppress their emotions even though the root cause is not addressed or potency of that emotion is high. This leads to keeping the emotion undercover only to blow up again in a more dangerous way. In order to know, if we are aware of our emotions, we need to observe ourselves in various situations. We need to ask ourselves these questions, do we over react? Don't react at all ? Or do we try to pretend that the situation is not worth your attention?
Self Regulation Tool- This tool is handy, when emotions start getting out of control. When there are arguments, and emotions fly high. Sometimes undesirable emotions come to the fore, and they need to be self regulated, else they would cause great damage. Some employees don't seem to feel any emotions, they have learnt to suppress their emotions, this can cause a flare up in the person who is trying to get some response from this "unemotional" person. It is, therefore important to have the ability to experience and express emotions moderately. If emotions go out of control they can destroy relationships and lives. Anger is one of most dangerous emotions, it gives the feeling of being powerful, but the after effects are always regretful. Other emotions like sadness, depression, anxiety if allowed to escalate can lead to paralysis, or numbness or losing interest in living. The belief that venting out emotions is good way to calm them down is not entirely true. The best way to deal with emotions would be to be aware of them first and find out why you are feeling that way, also try and look at the situation more objectively. What were the circumstances that led to the situation that is now causing this uncontrollable surge of emotions. Once you are able to see both sides of the situation, you will be able to cool down and find a more workable solution to the problem.
Self Motivation Tool- Self Motivation and motivating team members, as a tool has been used over decades now. However, without self awareness and self regulation it fails to have a long lasting impact on actions, desires and needs of a person. Everyone is not motivated same way, some feel more motivated than others. The goal that someone is trying to achieve may motivate them to forego certain pleasures now. Discipline to achieve those goals requires motivation. Having a positive outlook on life helps in motivating oneself better than if one is overwhelmed with fear and doubt and anxiety. A little bit of fear or anxiety is needed to motivate, if these are used positively to prepare oneself for the upcoming task then they can succeed. For e.g. if a new employee has been asked to make a presentation on a new topic, he/she may be afraid at first. However, once they decide that they are going to do their best in the given situation, all emotions that come thereafter only help in pushing them towards their goal. They become so engrossed in doing their work so well, that they are happy and satisfied with their performance and become oblivious to any negativity in their surroundings.
Empathy Building Tool- Is the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions. Empathy is feeling what the other person is feeling. We usually observe this while watching an emotional movie. When someone in the movie is being ill treated or is crying most of the audience begin to cry or feel sad, so if get so emotional while watching a movie which we all know is not real, how much more strongly might we feel when some painful incident is happening in front of us, in reality? In contrast, there are some people who do not know how feel their own emotions, let alone understand someone else's, these people may lack empathy due to being emotionally neglected or abused, growing up. Empathy is a very important tool for leadership in an organisation. When the leader is empathetic he recognizes what his team is trying to convey to him/ her even if they are not able to articulate their emotions correctly. This helps in building trust between the leader and his team, and thereby empowering the leader to move ahead and accept great challenges on behalf of the organisation, with the support of his/her team.
Social Skills Tool- This tool is essential to build healthy relationships at workplace or at home. Social skill is the ability to facilitate interaction and communication with others. Social skills include a certain level of self management of ones own emotions while trying to respond to another's need or problem. If cajoling, pleading and physical comfort techniques don't work then a more firm tone could work. Where in an attempt to stop the painful emotion, from going on, and causing more misery to the person, a firm warning to snap out of it, for a moment may just work. This distracts the person and forces them to take a step back and think of the consequences of continuing the destructive behaviour. Social Skills also have what is called as Emotional Contagion, where the emotions of people are passed on to others like a virus. For eg: in a situation where a person is sad about something, and a group of his friends show up to give him a surprise visit, he cheers up immediately and forgets about his misery for at least that short period of time.
Now, take a look at this 3 min video, and get a little more information on Emotional Intelligence:
Several measurement tools have been developed to grade what people score in terms of expertise in using these tools, positively or negatively, and in which EI tools they need to be trained in further?
Given below are some of the Tools to measure Emotional Intelligence
1. Abilities based- Similar to IQ MSCEIT
2. Trait based- Bar on EQ- i
3. Competency based- ECI
4. Behaviour based- Genos
5. Emotional and social competency inventory (ESCI). Daniel Goleman & Richard Boyatzis.
There are quite a few apps developed now that the EI Industry can use to help develop emotional Intelligence. These are a Smiling Mind, Mind Meter, Mitra, Stop Breathe and Think etc..
So, to conclude, taking into consideration all the real life situations listed above and understanding how a high IQ may help a person to get admissions into the best of schools and colleges and even the best of jobs, it is EQ which helps them navigate the twists and turns of life. Therefore, EI tools to understand oneself and others is of utmost value, in empowering individuals and thereby organisations, to discover emotionally intelligent solutions, to various challenges coming at them from all directions.
That's all for now, hope you found this post informative.
Please like, share, comment, follow and subscribe, for more articles on such and more topics.
Till we meet in my next post, bye and take care!
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