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Emotional Intelligence

02/12/2015

What is emotional intelligence? And is my emotional intelligence high?  These are questions that I am often asked and this topic seems to be preying on people's minds more and more, so let's see if we can dispel a couple of myths within this short blog.

Firstly, the concept of emotional intelligence is not a new one. Daniel Goleman may have popularised the idea, but its origins can be tracked back to an American Psychologist, Edward Thorndike (1920), who suggested that social intelligence is the ability to understand and manage people whilst acting wisely in human relations (sound familiar?).

Several decades later Howard Gardner (1983) considered interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Gardner suggested that interpersonal intelligence recognising a person's ability to process and understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people and to work well with others.  Intrapersonal intelligence meanwhile, looked at the extent to which one is able to understand themselves; their desires, fears and capacities in order to regulate their life.

Drawing on this we can provide a practical definition of EI:  a collection of traits that can help people gauge social and emotional situations and interactions with others. This set of traits is considered critical in today's complex contexts, particularly in leadership roles.

Have I high or low emotional intelligence?

Assessing Emotional Intelligence in this way suggests that it is directly measureable and that there is a right or wrong / good or bad result.  This is born out of the use of ability testing in the most common EI testing platforms.

However, we favour the use of trait based assessment, which means that there is no right or wrong, good or bad and that people can easily develop the traits necessary for effective EI.  Notice I haven't stated high EI.  Remember it is not about the score, it is about the ability to use the traits (and use them more or less, like a volume control) in each situation.

The Trait approach views EI as a collection of traits (16 in all) that can be measured using self-report questionnaires that ask you to rate your own perceived abilities relating to various emotional characteristics such as happiness, empathy or emotional management.

Using the trait approach leads to deeper conversations and heightened self-awareness without the concern of being high or low.

Why not find out more?


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