What is emotional intelligence and how should we perceive it?
We all have different characters, attitudes, personalities and ways of expressing our emotions. Passing through all this takes thoughtfulness, prudence and cleverness if we want to reach our goal. For people to survive in today’s changing world they should maintain their competitive advantage through the use of the whole workforce. For the change to take place, they should be able to adapt to their environment, understand others effectively and continuous improvement of this process to maintain a good relationship. This is where Emotional Intelligence becomes requisite.
“There is no separation of mind and emotions; emotions, thinking and learning are all linked.” - Eric Jensen
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize one’s own and other fellow-mate’s emotions, understand what they are telling you and realize how your emotions influence people around you. It’s the foundation for handling impulses, stress and responding versus reacting in a better way. Emotions provide the clue to perform whenever a complication occurs.
This is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. It also involves your perception of others. When you could understand how the people in front of you feel, you could handle the relationship fruitfully. Emotional intelligence is a pretty powerful tool.
Daniel Goleman (2002), a psychologist who helped make the idea of EI popular, presented the five elements of emotional intelligence:
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social skills
SELF-AWARENESS:
It is the ability to understand one’s thoughts and motivations and it also includes the realization of the effects they have on others.
Example: By understanding what others think about you.
SELF-REGULATION:
It is the ability to curb one’s emotions, the ability to think and react or speak and to express oneself in a proper manner.
Example: If the person you know yells at you, instead of yelling back at them you will try to analyze the situation.
MOTIVATION:
It is the ability to involve in self-improvement and creating the strength to face the ordeals.
Example: Motivation is driven by two goals: interior and exterior. Where interior motivation includes things like becoming successful, exterior motivation involves things like setting a goal to buy a new house.
EMPATHY:
It is the ability to recognize other people’s emotions. Self-awareness plays an important role in achieving empathy.
Example: Being able to understand the reason behind someone’s sadness, even though they are different from what you have experienced so far.
SOCIAL SKILLS:
It is the ability to socialize with others like understanding jokes and maintaining friendships or relationships.
Example: When there is a conflict between two students, it becomes the responsibility of the teacher to solve the conflict without being partial.
Focusing on these five elements of emotional intelligence theory and with practice, you will develop yourself. Keep doing it and you will improve further. Repetition is the mother of skill!
WHICH MATTERS A LOT, IQ OR EQ?
Your life and career are determined by both. IQ alone is not enough; EQ also matters. Psychologists generally agree that among the prime factors for success, IQ counts for 25% at its best. The rest depends on the EQ.
“Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them.” says Howard Gardner, the influential Harvard theorist.
As individuals, our success and the success of the profession in today’s economy depend on our ability to read other people’s emotions and react precisely towards them. Therefore, each one of us must develop the prime emotional intelligence skills required to better understand, empathize and arbitrate with people around us.
People with good emotional intelligence will take an honest look at themselves. They could differentiate their strength, weakness, fear, attitude and so on. They have a balanced tongue to express their views over others. Their mind thinks twice before it acts. People with high emotional intelligence will have greater self-esteem, they look highly motivated. They are considered to be a typical team player. Emotional intelligence can be a key to success in your life.
In this context, we’ve included what is emotional intelligence, a brief history of the concept, the foundation that emotional intelligence is built on and its prime factors. We hope you’ve learned something and that you’ll consider a constant practice towards increasing this powerful stuff — EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.
-Harini Nandhakumar
