Emotions are a part of our lives. We all have them, and they play an essential role in how we interact with others. Emotional intelligence is the ability that allows people to understand their own emotions and other people’s emotions. As a result, they know what to do when faced with difficult situations or feelings. And they can use this knowledge to help themselves and those around them.
Have you ever been able to recognize the emotions you feel? Yet, how often do you struggle to control them? The more Emotional Intelligence you have, the more you can identify and manage them.
You have heard a lot about IQ (Intelligent Quotient), which measures your intelligence or intellectual abilities and potential. You would have even taken a few IQ tests and boasted your score on social media.
EQ (Emotional Quotient) is similar but with emotions. It measures your ability and capacity to recognize and manage your emotions. Emotional intelligence improves mental health, which helps you achieve success in both your professional and personal lives.
This article will introduce you to Emotional Intelligence, how it’s different from IQ, and answer any other questions you might have.
Let’s begin. Shall we?
Table of Contents
What exactly is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to recognize, understand, control, and manage their and other people’s emotions. In short, it’s the measure of your capacity to be self-aware of your feelings and to empathize with others.
In the above introduction, you have probably observed that we have used both Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Intelligence (EI). However, even though many use EQ and EI interchangeably, they are not the same. While Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize and handle your emotions, Emotional Quotient is the measure of that ability. In short, EQ is the measure of your EI.
But having said that, EQ can only measure your knowledge of your emotions and not how good you are at practical implementation – in real-life situations.
History
Let’s now understand the origins of the term Emotional Intelligence. The talk about Emotional Intelligence began in the second half of the 20th century by prominent psychologists. They published various papers on the theory of mind, multiple intelligences, and leadership. One of their focus areas was to discuss how IQ cannot measure one’s emotional abilities.
The most prominent was the article “Emotional Intelligence” in 1990 by researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer. They defined Emotional Intelligence as;
The ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.
Peter Salovey and John Mayer
Dave Goleman further popularized the term in 1996 with his book “Emotional Intelligence.“
How is it different from Cognitive Intelligence & Intellectual Intelligence?
What is intelligence? Intelligence is one’s ability to learn new things, understand situations, think critically, logically, reason, solve problems, and many more. Scientists have categorized these abilities into different types. Of these, cognitive intelligence and intellectual intelligence are the ones that many people associate with intelligence.
What is cognitive intelligence? It is the ability to reason, focus, think logically, process various forms of information (analysis), and having a good memory. When you take an IQ test, it’s your cognitive intelligence that gets measured.
What is Intellectual Intelligence?
We can define it as one’s ability to use and apply the acquired knowledge in a particular situation. In addition, it is the ability to adapt to and deal with new problems.
Now, how different is emotional intelligence from cognitive and intellectual intelligence?
Emotional intelligence deals with social and communication abilities, managing your emotions, understanding and empathizing with others, and managing your relationships.
Cognitive intelligence is an inherent ability. It can increase a little bit by developing your cognitive skills through mental exercises, but it is relatively stable. In contrast, emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned and improved.
Cognitive intelligence recognizes intellectual people, people who can solve mental challenges and problems. In comparison, emotional intelligence helps to identify leaders, captains, and managers.
How Is Emotional Intelligence Measured?
Like IQ, there are several models to measure or assess one’s emotional intelligence. However, even though there are many tests to measure EI, they are based on these three models:
Ability model
The ability model is also known as the Mayer and Salovey model. According to this model, there are four abilities or four branches of emotional intelligence:
- Perceive emotions – Detect emotions in faces, pictures, voices, items in others as well as your own.
- Use emotions – Harness your emotions and aid them in performing cognitive tasks.
- Understand emotions – Being self-aware of your feelings, analyze them and appreciate the complexity in relationships.
- Manage emotions – Control and regulate your emotions and also that of others.
The test based on this model is called the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). The candidates need to solve various problems related to emotions. Some tests also have multiple-choice questions. Thus, they measure the ability of the candidate to understand their feelings but do not predict their behavior or reaction to them.
Performance model
This model was introduced by Daniel Goleman and hence is called Goleman’s model. According to this model, 12 skills or competencies contribute to making better leaders and managers in the workplace.
- Emotional self-awareness
- Emotional self-control
- Adaptability
- Achievement orientation
- Positive outlook
- Influence
- Coaching and mentoring
- Empathy
- Conflict management
- Teamwork
- Organizational awareness
- Inspirational leadership
The model also outlines four main capabilities – self-awareness, relationship management, self-management, and social awareness. The tests measure the candidate’s performance in the workplace and enhance their professional success.
Trait model
The trait model measures a candidate’s emotional intelligence based on their self-report. Thus, it is the candidate’s self-perception of their emotional abilities. While the previous two models focus on the candidate’s skills and performances, the trait model focuses on the candidate’s behavior or trait.
The model believes that personality traits are part of emotional intelligence. Therefore, the tests can predict and understand the candidate’s actual behavior in various situations.
How does Theory of Mind relate to Emotional Intelligence?
If you have heard about the theory of mind, you probably wonder if it relates to emotional intelligence. The theory of mind describes the ability to attribute various mental states like beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge to others and yourself.
To understand others, you need social and cognitive thinking abilities. It is more about making predictions or theories on what is going on in another person’s mind. It is what or how you perceive others and your beliefs on others that may or may not be valid. Hence, the name Theory of Mind.
Like emotional intelligence, you can develop even theory of mind by paying attention and being open-minded. However, while emotional intelligence focuses on empathizing and understanding others’ emotions, the theory of mind focuses on other mental states.
Can You Improve Your Emotional Intelligence?
The simple answer is yes. Because, unlike your cognitive abilities, you can develop emotional abilities by observing the world – the people. Even though your personality is something that you are born with, it changes over time based on various life experiences, internal and external factors.
As you can see, your previous similar or identical experiences determine your behavior or attitude towards any situation. Thus, a skill is something that you build with learning, practice, and experience. The same goes for emotional intelligence.
For example, if you have anger issues, you learn anger management techniques to control your anger. If you are going through stress and anxiety, you find ways like meditation and therapy to reduce them. Similarly, there are many ways to improve the way you recognize, understand and manage your emotions. We will go into that in detail in the second part of this article.
Is emotional intelligence EQ being overemphasized at the expense of traditional intelligence IQ?
They say that human beings are social animals. So no matter how smart you are, if you lack essential social skills, you might have destructive relationships in both professional and personal lives. Also, losing their jobs because of bad behavior despite being good at their work is not uncommon.
We believed that only IQ matters to get a job and become successful in life for many years. But in a company, you need to work with other people in a team for any project. So you will have both bosses and subordinates with whom you need to have effective communication and maintain good relationships for better performance of the team and the project.
IQ does help you to get good marks in school, get good jobs and earn more money. But success is not just that. You need to collaborate with your colleagues and cope with emotional challenges and various life situations.
That doesn’t mean IQ is unimportant. Because if you are good at managing emotions but don’t possess any practical skills that help you earn money, your chances of success are low.
Thus, the verdict is that both IQ and EQ are equally important to lead a successful and healthier (physical and mental) life.
Wrapping up
Now that you have a better understanding of Emotional Intelligence, you probably wonder how it will help you in your workplace.
For Agile professionals, emotional intelligence is crucial to building self-organizing teams that deliver value to customers. We will address many aspects of workplace relevance in the next article. The following article will learn more about EI and its importance in the workplace and building leadership. Stay tuned.
