Are you skilled with emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is a requisite skill which can give you the winning edge to score over all competition at the workplace. EJ Sarma explains how

For years human resource professionals, corporate trainers, recruiters, managers and others have known what sets apart the average performers from the stars. It is not technical skills, nor intelligence. It is something else, something that you knew it if you saw it, but which was difficult to clearly define. It was people skills. After many years of talking about people skills, those of us in the business of training, coaching, managing and hiring have been vindicated. We can replace it with an objective, measurable term—emotional intelligence. Those who have never valued the ability to read people and understand emotions because these were soft skills and could not be measured, will have to rethink their stand. Emotional intelligence is a set of abilities.

We can classify emotional intelligence into four related parts:

Identifying emotions—the ability to correctly identify how people are feeling. Using emotions—the ability to create emotions and to integrate your feelings into the way you think. Understanding emotions—the ability to understand the causes of emotions. Managing emotions—the ability to figure out effective strategies that use your emotions to help you achieve a goal.

Measuring emotional intelligence

Different approaches to the measurement of emotional intelligence are available. But every measure of emotional intelligence is tied to a particular definition. To measure emotional skills or to test emotional intelligence as the ability to reason with and about emotions, one needs to use an ability test.

Here are ways in which emotional intelligence assists us in our work, based upon the four-branch theory of emotional intelligence.

Identifying emotions:

• Need to be aware of one’s feelings so that one is not blinded by emotions
• Being aware of other’s emotions is a key to working with people

Using Emotions:

• Creative ideas can come from the ability to generate a mood or an emotion.
• Empathy for people.

Understanding emotions:

• Know what motivates people.
• Understand other people’s point of view.
• Understand and handle team interactions.

Managing emotions:

• Be aware of your emotions and use them to solve problems.
• When disappointed try to find out the cause and take remedial measures.

Career development

Emotional intelligence plays an important role in many areas of our lives. A recent book on the best career opportunities closely examined the skills and aptitudes required to succeed at those jobs with a future. CareerSmarts: Jobs With a Future (Ballantine, 1997), by career expert Martin Yate, discusses the role of emotional intelligence in careers and actually rates the level of emotional intelligence required for each field.

Some jobs do not require a great deal of emotional intelligence. These careers focus mainly on tasks, which can be accomplished individually or by working with others in fixed, set or structured ways. That is not to say that if you have a high level of emotional intelligence that you won’t succeed in these careers. Emotional intelligence may be just the thing that sets you apart from your colleagues and leads you to success in the workplace. Some jobs involve working in informal teams, or require empathising with and understanding others. Without high level of emotional intelligence, one may find these careers to be difficult, or perhaps less satisfying.

Management development

Emotional intelligence enhances management skills. It is a set of abilities which can assist managers in several, critical ways.

Flexible planning: Managers who are emotionally intelligent use their emotions to adapt their plans. They do not ignore uncomfortable facts. Emotionally intelligent behavior helps managers plan better in many ways:

• Change plans to meet the need of the momen.t
• Adapt to different situations.
• Consider a variety of possible actions.
• Come up with alternate plans.
• Do not consistently do the same thing.
• Do not stick to the plan when it doesn’t work out.

Motivation: Emotionally intelligent managers are able to understand their emotions and those of others, in order to help them motivate their staff and themselves. Emotionally intelligent managers:

• Get people to keep going, even when they want to give up.
• Get people to try again after failing at something.
• Motivate others/ self.
• Get things done.

Decision-making: Managers are called upon to make decisions based upon strong emotions. When the emotions are not dealt with in a constructive way it can lead to bad decisions. Emotionally intelligent managers make better decisions by:

• Using emotions to improve thinking.
• See things clearly even when feelings are overpowering.
• Make good, solid decisions even when angry.
• Do not react out of anger.

Balance their thoughts and their feelings.

• Make decisions based on their head and their heart.
• Do not let strong emotions blind them.

Team effectiveness

When working in a team environment, the skill of emotional intelligence becomes even more important to the job. The key is to work efficiently with others. Emotional intelligence also helps in generating new and creative ideas and solutions to problems.

Creative thinking: All teams need to come up with solutions to problems. Emotional intelligence helps you to think creatively in many ways:

• View problems from multiple perspectives.
• Be inventive and see new solutions.
• Generate original ideas and solutions.

Social effectiveness: When working in a team, social effectiveness allows you to accomplish the desired goal. Why emotional intelligence helps in working with others:

• Enjoyable to be with.
• Good at influencing people.
• Believable and trusting.
• Empathetic.

Emotional intelligence is not the sole predictor of workplace success, career satisfaction or leadership effectiveness. It is one of many important components. Part of being an educated user of emotional intelligence means understanding that it is not and should not be thought of as a replacement or substitute for ability, knowledge or job skills. Emotional intelligence and people skills enhances your success, but it does not guarantee it in the absence of suitable skills.