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What is Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand your feelings, track how and why they happened, and decide whether or not to let them go. It is a person’s ability to feel the situation correctly and sensitively, to understand the desires of others, and to be resistant to stress and the influence of negative emotions and environmental factors.

There are five major components of emotional intelligence, although some sources list only three or four of them. This is what good EI is all about.

• Self-awareness. The ability to recognize and understand your own emotions.
• Self-regulation. The ability to deal with feelings. It is important not only to recognize them but also to be able to express, regulate and manage them properly.
• Motivation. These are interior personal motifs to achieve something. It is not a matter of accepting people (respect or glory), but rather of regulating emotions, as self-control will lead you to reach your goals.
• Empathy. The ability to understand and put oneself in the shoes of others. In this case, you may not agree with the behavior of others, but such an analysis will help you see the situation from their point of view.
• Social skills. The ability of an individual to interact in society and deal with any life situation. This allows you to achieve your goals and build your social relationships.

Worth knowing the difference! The abbreviation EI (Emotional Intelligence) is the term for emotional intelligence, and EQ (Emotional Quotient) is the term for its coefficient, in other words, «emotional coefficient».

What is emotional intelligence for?

Emotional intelligence is an air cushion that, in any situation, will keep a person “afloat”. EI helps to maximize its resources in the event of a crisis, to adjust the system of trust and open relations with others, and to avoid the negative impact of stress.

How EQ helps in work and business

Talent Smart has been doing research on EI for more than 20 years. According to its latest data, it is EQ 58% determines the opportunity for career development in any area. High EQ is inherent in 90% of the best managers in the world, and people who have high EQ make more than their colleagues who have low EQ.

These days, high EQ is necessary. Emotional intelligence refers to soft/flexible skills, or non-cognitive skills, such as those which related to interpersonal relationships and necessary in any professional activity. That doesn’t matter if you work with information technology or in the service industry – a high emotional coefficient is required!

For example, looking through vacancies, you can often find such requirements for soft skills:

• stress-resistant
• leadership
• teamwork
• self-organization
• commitment

These are all signs of a person with high EQ. The development of emotional intelligence is worth it if you are in a leadership position, if you work with people, or if your business needs constant KPI growth.

EI can be both individual and common to a particular company or team – it is called a collective emotional factor. According to Judy Bell, a US Workforce Management Specialist, teams with high EQ scores are more productive because of good communication between professionals. Businesses with lower EQ level have higher staff turnover, lower productivity, and lower sales. The fact that things are not going well with Emotional intelligence in the team is demonstrated by a few signs: frequent outbursts of anger from employees, conflicts within the collective, lack of understanding of the work of neighboring departments and specific colleagues, as well as the challenges of interacting with clients and contractors.

In the book «The Other Kind of Smart», Harvey Deutschendorf, an expert in the field of emotional intelligence, refers to research conducted by the Yale School of Management, according to which 24% of respondents report constant irritation at work. Deutschendorf notes that employees can only give what they get, and a healthy corporate culture is a direct path to satisfied customers. Developed EI is the key to successful communication and long-term partnership.

How to develop emotional intelligence

Now we’ll let you down – you have to work on yourself to develop EI. There is no magic method or clever secret. There are some basic tips:

• learn to step into someone else’s shoes
• develop the ability to correctly recognize other people’s emotions and their own
• expand your horizons as much as possible to learn to understand and appreciate the difference between people
• learn to think two stages in advance, plan and implement time management.
• proceed to personal therapy.

Who can help to grow emotional intelligence

The most effective will be a visit to a psychologist, a trainer, a personal growth tutor, or a group business class on personal growth. The professional will immediately give qualified advice and guide the way to improve relations with yourself. Get ready that it will be difficult to find someone who will point you in the right direction for development, from the first time.

In recent years, the topic of emotional intelligence development is very popular among managers. A lot of training and thematic classes are dedicated to this. We recommend searching and visiting such classes. And if the time is catastrophically short, you can spend 15-30 minutes per day studying special literature.

What to read to develop EI

In the 21st century, countless books about EI have already been written. In our article, we have added the most tested and popular copies, from which you can start your path.

TOP 5 Books about Emotional Intelligence:

• “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” Daniel Goleman
• “Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence” Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee
• “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
• “Emotional Intelligence For Dummies” Dr. Steven Stein
• “At the Heart of Leadership: How To Get Results with Emotional Intelligence” Joshua Freedman

How do I know my level of emotional intelligence?

In addition to self-analysis, there are numerous online tests to determine the level of emotional intelligence. We offer you one of these in the online scientific magazine Greater Good magazine. In the emotional intelligence test from Greater Good magazine, you get an explanation after each answer, and each question is accompanied by photos and illustrations for clarity. You get not only useful information for yourself but also the opportunity to spend an interesting time.