What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at school and work, and achieve your career and personal goals. It can also help you to connect with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.

Emotional intelligence is a very important skill in leadership. It is said to have five main elements such as – self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Self-awareness

You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.

“In a very real sense we have two minds: one that thinks and one that feels”. Daniel Goleman

Self-regulation

You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Social awareness

You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

Relationship management

You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Intellectual ability or your intelligence quotient (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to achieve success in life. Yes, your IQ can help you get into college, but it’s your EQ that will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing your final exams. EQ is not opposite IQ. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they build off one another. Among the ingredients for success IQ counts for about twenty percent – the rest depends on everything from luck, to social class and emotional intelligence. In the business world, according to personnel executives, IQ gets you a job, but EQ gets you promotion.

Emotional Intelligence Importance

Emotional intelligence affects:

The key skills for building EQ and improving the ability to manage emotions need to be learned in the family. Teachers should teach students about emotional intelligence importance and help them develop necessary skills.

The right sort of emotional intelligence can inoculate children against a whole range of emotional difficulties (anxiety, panic attacks, depression, addiction, anger). There is overwhelming, incontrovertible, undeniable evidence that good emotional intelligence is a marker for success in today’s workplace.

Life is so much more enjoyable with good emotional intelligence. Aside from avoiding all the above emotional nasties, you enjoy work more, get more from your personal and professional relationships, progress further at work and so earn more, have more control over yourself and are better placed to help others.

Emotional intelligence skills can be learned. These skills enable you to:

  • motivate others
  • communicate elegantly and effectively
  • listen so you get the real message
  • take setbacks without feeling distraught
  • stop anget ruining your health, relationships and job prospects
  • enjoy extremely satisfying and productive relationships
  • protect yourself, your family and friends from emotional problems
  • be more comfortable with uncertainty

The first three skills on this list ranked as the top qualities of senior managers.

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Based on: www.helpguide.org