Emotional Intelligence has been around for a long time. With various aspects of it covered in different cultural sayings and teachings. This Example, “never make a decision when angry or hungry” points to the fact that from time immemorial, we have acknowledged that emotions do affect something as fundamental as decision making.
What does Emotional Intelligence Mean? What is Emotional Intelligence? A few decades ago a few scholars started noticing that there were certain qualities that were not unlike cognitive abilities that were not of a technical/aptitude nature. These qualities seemed to underpin why certain people found success in work and life. Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer are credited with bringing this research to the forefront. But it was Daniel Goleman in his 1995 “Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ” who brought Emotional intelligence to the limelight. His book still remains a best seller to date. It is now a foregone conclusion that technical ability gets your foot in the door.
You have to be competent not to lose out quickly as Jack Ma quips. But Emotional Intelligence keeps you going. Emotional Intelligence gets you effective. Emotional Intelligence means that you can collaborate and connect with people. Which means better teamwork.
People with higher Emotional intelligence make for better leaders. If you think of leadership as setting the tone for the organization, then you can see how leaders with high Emotional Intelligence will build more resilient teams.. High Emotional Intelligence means that you will be able to drive more engagement. Engagement scores are always being measured by organisations because they have been directly correlated with productivity.
There are many articles online on What Emotional Intelligence is, the definition of Emotional Intelligence and the specific components of Emotional Intellgence. In this era of Knowledge, not understanding what Emotional Intelligence can be a deal breaker. There are lots of places to download pdfs that are great sources of information.
Another reason that Makes Emotional Intelligence Important for you, is that you learn how to manage people. People with higher levels of Emotional Intelligence are able to manage upwards better, which increases their chances of career growth. They also engage in activities that promote long term strategic thinking. This means that they are able to deliver results, manage time better, and are better project planners. They are able to put time aside to ‘sharpen the saw’ as described by the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This means that they will keep learning, keep getting better and growing. All these are qualities that are required for anyone growing towards leadership roles.
Emotional Intelligence is also very important when it comes to relationships. People with higher levels of Emotional Intelligence tend to have more successful relationships. This will play out at the workplace and also in their personal life. Enabling them to have better quality of life in and out of the office.
There are many books on emotional Intelligence out there written by various authors if one is looking. There are also lots of excellent articles written that you can download that will give more information on Emotional Intelligence.
To sum up this article, Emotional Intelligence is important. Here are some things you can do to grow your level of Emotional Intelligence
- Get to read on the topic as much as you can and really get some depth into the topic.
- Start on the journey of self awareness. Learn to understand your emotions by increasing your emotional Awareness.
- Start to observe the people you see exhibiting the behaviours associated with high Emotional Intelligence and understand why
- Keep a Journal of your thoughts, learning and other everyday areas of growth as an accountability partner. Journaling has also been proved to reduce stress by bringing in new perspectives.
- Take an assessment to understand where you are and what you need to grow in this area.
Emotional intelligence is a skill and when practiced, we get very good at it. Get
yourself out there and keep going.
For more information on what we do, or Emotional intelligence assessments, you can reach out to us on info@profiles.co.ke to the attention of Vicky Karuga. Or call us at 0722 457777
Vicky Karuga is the Managing Director of Profiles International, A leading firm in the provision of psychometric assessments in the East African Region.
