Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ)
It has been argued by some people that EQ, the ‘emotion quotient’, is even more important than the ‘intelligence quotient’ or IQ.
Emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) is the ability to recognize your own emotions and those of others, to differentiate between different feelings and call them out, and to use emotional information to guide your behavior. It also means you are able to adapt to the enviroment emotionally to achieve your goals.
Although the term first appeared in a scholarly article in 1964, it became more mainstream with the 1995 book "Emotional Intelligence" written by Daniel Goleman. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is a set of skills and competencies focused on four capabilities: self-awareness, relationship management, and social awareness.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness refers to the capacity to recognize and understand emotions and to have a sense of how your actions affect others.
It involves keeping track of emotions and noticing different emotional reactions, as well as being able to identify the emotions correctly. Goleman believes this is a skill that can be learned.
Self-awareness also includes recognizing that how we feel and what we do are related, and having awareness of one’s own personal strengths and limitations. It also involves continously learning from social interactions.
Self-management
This is the ability to control your impluses and moods. Can you suspend judement and think before acting? It requires you to be open to change. The result is that are seen with integrity and as more trustworthy.
Social Awareness
Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. A skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions. In a work setting that means expertise in building and retaining talent, cross-cultural sensitivity, and better service to clients and customers.
It is important to note that empathy does not necessarily imply compassion. Empathy can be 'used' for evil too. It is simply the ability to understand others motivations, desires, needs, behaviors, and actions regardless of how you use it.
Relationship Management:
This refers to interacting well with other people. It involves a continous understanding and applicaiton of the emotions of ourselves with those of others.
Social skills include – active listening, verbal communication skills, non-verbal communication skills, and leadership leadership. The end result is a proficiency in managing relationships, an ability to find common ground, building rapport, being persuasive, and an expertice in building and leading teams.