EQ - You Really Got to Get a Handle on This!

I started to do some training with our team recently about EQ.

According to Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, IQ factors only account for twenty percent of career success. The other 80% depends on emotional intelligence (EQ).

Clinical psychologist Reuven Bar-On defines emotional and social intelligence as “an array of emotional, personal, and social abilities and skills that influence one’s overall ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures.”

Emotionally mature human beings have the capacity to be aware of their attitudes, and, thus, make choices to improve negative ones or to act freely of such.

Goleman also uses the term “emotional competence,” which means emotions can be “learned” like any other “skill.” He explains how discoveries in neuroscience show us that the actual physiology of the brain can be altered through training. He writes, “The human brain is designed to change itself in response to accumulated experience.” Therefore, when Goleman speaks of Emotional Intelligence as “being able … to rein in emotional impulse; to read another innermost feelings; to handle relationships smoothly,”these are skills to be developed.

Just as we can increase the stamina of the heart or strength in the quadriceps, we can develop our brains, the seat of cognitive and emotional life.

The world calls the ability to relate to others "emotional intelligence," the Bible calls it "wisdom."

Study after study, not to mention good old common sense, demonstrates the key to exceptional leadership lies in developing the leadership competencies related to people skills. Strengthening one's interpersonal skills elevates a person's leadership abilities and results dramatically. Studies have demonstrated that leaders who consistently outperform their peers not only have the technical skills required, but more importantly, have mastered most of the aspects of Emotional Intelligence.

The 4 main areas of Emotional Intelligence are: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management.

Many of the EI/EQ competencies are tightly related to one another, and improving competency in one area will often positively affect competency in another. Competence in each of these areas will help anyone become better at working with people. Proficiency in certain sets of these competencies will propel a leader and an organization towards greater productivity, greater satisfaction, and increased profitability. Leaders who build these relationship competencies find they have a greater ability to improve their organization's profitability, growth, satisfaction, teamwork, and vision.

The term Emotional Intelligence (EI), often interchanged with the term Emotional Quotient (EQ), became popular after Daniel Goleman published his first book called ‘Emotional Intelligence’ in 1995. Emotional Intelligence (or “EI”) refers to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, and for motivating and managing emotions in ourselves, and in our relationships”.

The discussion of EQ often begins with an emotional challenge from Aristotle, as stated in Goleman’s book: “Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy”.

I can see I will need to do a post about "assessing your EQ" and then another on "resources for strengthening your EQ."

Mark Batterson did a blog post about an example from the bible of EQ - click here for the post content.

I am also planning a post soon about the EQ of Jesus - some of the preliminary notes are very interesting.... the EQ of JC!

SO watch this space!