Emotional Intelligence

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Emotional intelligence (EI) is the “it” factor—not education, experience, intellect, or charisma—that helps predict personal achievement, happiness, and professional success. EI is the ability to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them. Biologically, it results from effective communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain.¹

 Four skills that define our ability to recognize emotions and manage our behavior and relationships are commonly used to define emotional intelligence:

Self-awareness       Self-management
Social awareness    Relationship management

The four-branch concept was made popular by Daniel Goleman, et al, in the 2002 book, Primal Leadership. The top two, self-awareness and self-management, relate to the level of understanding of one’s own traits, feelings, and behaviors; social awareness and relationship management deal with how we deal with other people. Together, the skills capture the side of intelligence that native cognitive intelligence—IQ—does not. In fact, it is estimated that at least 75% of success in any job cannot be correlated to IQ alone.²

People with high EI are good at establishing positive social relationships with others and avoiding conflicts. They are good coaches and are able to assist others as well as groups to live and work together harmoniously.

 A group of people working as a team can also develop a collective EI, with a skill set that includes emotional awareness, emotion management, internal relationship management, and external relationship management. At the core is the ability to identify and understand emotions of the members of the group. Teams with a high EI respond constructively in emotionally uncomfortable situations and have a positive influence on one another.³

 References
1. The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book. Bradberry T, Greaves J—New York: Fireside, 2005, p 12.
2. Working with Emotional Intelligence. Goleman D—New York: Bantam Books, p 19.
3. Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups. Druskar VU, Wolff SB. Harv Bus Rev 79:80-90, 2001.