What Michael Scott Can Teach You About Emotional Intelligence

If you've ever seen the NBC hit show The Office, then you know that the characters in this workplace comedy do not always behave with sensitivity, or use emotional intelligence (EI) when dealing with their coworkers and clients. But what is "emotional intelligence" exactly? Is it just about being nice?

In our May 2009 article we defined emotional intelligence as, "the ability to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them." To put this in more concrete terms, EI is comprised of the following four skillsets: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. People with high EI are aware of how they are behaving and understand how their behavior affects others. On the other hand, people with low EI tend to have a distorted view of their own behavior and often do not realize or do not care how their actions impact those around them (think Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada).

Emotional intelligence has become an important buzzword in business, as recent studies have shown that emotional intelligence helps predict, "personal achievement, happiness, and professional success." In addition, workplace climate can account for 20%-30% of business performance. If your practice has a negative workplace climate, it could be causing your practice to lose money and run less efficiently. Interestingly enough, 50% to 70% of how employees perceive the workplace climate can be traced to the actions of one person -- the leader. So it is especially important for leaders in particular to understand their impact on those around them.

Do you think you have a handle on how to judge someone else's EI? Or your own? Check out this fun and insightful article from TalentSmart that rates each of The Office characters on emotional intelligence, including favorites like Toby, Dwight, Pam, and Michael Scott. The article includes videos from the series and even breaks down the rationale for the scores according to both personal competence (self-awareness and self-management) and social competence skills (self-awareness and relationship management).

Read The Office article to find out if Dwight or Michael Scott is more emotionally intelligent!