What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to evaluate them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions. [1] Our one-on-one work with thousands of graduates corroborates recent studies that students with high EQ are more effective at communicators and problem solvers. Therefore, our training approach focuses on developing these qualities.

Emotional Intelligence can be classified into five domains[2]:
1.    Self-awareness: Knowledge of one’s internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions
2.    Self-regulation: Management of one’s internal states, impulses, and resources
3.    Motivation: Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals
4.    Empathy: Awareness of others’ feelings, needs, and concerns
5.    Social Skills: Adeptness to inducing desirable responses in others

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important?

In the work environment, emotional intelligence enables three important skill sets: stellar work performance, outstanding leadership and the ability to create the conditions for happiness[3]. A study of 200 top executives found that those with high emotional intelligence imply better quality of work performance[4]. Another study of US Navy commanders reported that the most effective commanders are “positive and outgoing, more emotionally expressive and dramatic, warmer and more sociable (including smiling more), friendlier and more democratic, more cooperative, more likeable and ‘fun to be with’, more appreciative and trustworthy, and even gentler than those who were merely average”.[5]

References

[1]  Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, “Emotional Intelligence,” Imagination, Cognition, and Personality 9, no. 3 (1990): 185-211.
[2]  Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (New York: Bantam, 1995).
[3] Chade-Meng Tan (2012), Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace). HarperCollins: 12
[4] Khokhar, C.P, and Kush, Tulika (2009). ―Emotional Intelligence and work performing among executives, Europe‘s Journal of Psychology. 
[5] Wallace Bachman, “Nice Guys Finish First: A SYMLOG Analysis of U.S. Naval Commanders’” in The SYMLOG Practitioner, Ed. Polley, Hare, And Stone (New York: Praeger, 1988): 133-153.