Emotional Intelligence - What is it?

Emotional Intelligence is a term that has gained considerable status and recognition arguably since the writings of Daniel Goleman in the mid 1990’s. It’s a phenomenon that has gained both credibility and challenge during the last 15 years or so and now arguably accepted as a ‘reality’ that many of us can benefit further from increased awareness and acquisition of skills to help us be more successful in our personal interactions with others.

Definitions of Emotional Intelligence?

Here is a small range of definitions:

                                              Emotional intelligence is your ability to acquire and apply knowledge from your emotions and the emotions of others in order to be more 
                                              successful and lead a more fulfilling life.

                                             Emotional intelligence is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, learn from, manage, understand and explain
                                             emotions.

                                             Emotional Intelligence is the ability to be aware of your own emotions and to modify them when necessary. It is also the ability to understand
                                             someone else’s emotions and modify them when necessary.

The idea of understanding or having increased emotional intelligence is not necessarily enable someone to be manipulative but to help understand what may be more appropriate in a variety of situations.
It can be challenging to apply a high level of control your own emotions in all or certain situations and circumstances. Furthermore it is easy to misunderstand why someone else is reacting in a certain manner.
Have you ever met somebody who has over reacted to something or someone or who often reacts very strongly in certain situations?

It is arguably more effective to be selective (and controlled – but not necessarily in an un-emotive way) in how you respond to someone and determine different responses to different people, instead of reacting in an extreme manner.

If someone over reacts or always react in one particular manner (the same response all the time) they tend to be avoided and are unlikely to progress very far in many of their interactions and relationships – be the personal or professional.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) v Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

There’s been vast research into emotional intelligence (EI) and intelligence quotient (IQ).

The main challenge is around which is the better predictor of future performance.
Many conclusions appear to claim that EI is a far better predictor of future performance than IQ! Some studies conclude that having a high IQ can adversely effect future performance if not matched with a high level of EI
The case for EI is that it is unlikely someone will be successful unless they have the ability to pick appropriate emotional responses and to understand other peoples emotions.

Such knowledge can help you in many different ways – in your personal relationships and also in business relationships – for example an effective leader needs the ability to motivate other people in a manner they will respond effectively to, due to finding their behaviour (the leader) acceptable and/or inspiring, is essential.

One of the big advantages of emotional intelligence is that it can be developed and improved.