Emotional intelligence – known as EQ, the emotional intelligence quotient – comprises the ability to monitor, perceive, recognize, reason about, and understand emotions, and to use emotions to guide actions, solve problems, enhance thought, and promote growth.
EQ requires reasoning about emotions and understanding how they enhance thinking. This impacts intuition, integrity, and motivation, both of yourself and of others. EQ also includes communication and relationship skills, since it impacts the perception and recognition of emotions. A high EQ helps you monitor your emotions and use them so you can enhance emotional and intellectual growth.
Benefits
The biological basis for emotional intelligence emphasizes the strength of emotions and the need for intellect to analyze those emotions, particularly in situations where they’re not appropriate. This balancing of emotions with intelligence is important for everyone, from employees to managers to executives. And it’s vitally important for you as a leader in a tough business world because EQ is fundamental to your interactions with others.
Paying attention to motives, behaviors, and interactions is important to your success as a leader and for your organization’s success too. Remember, how results are obtained can be just as significant to an organization as the results themselves.
In fact, your emotions and social skills are as important to business success as facts, figures, and processes. You need to be cognitively able to handle the complexity of a given role or job. But after reaching that threshold of “knowledgeable enough,” intellect makes little difference.
There’s a robust connection between EQ and job success – a strong EQ is in fact a good predictor of success in the workplace. EQ contributes to success by helping you know how to motivate your employees individually.
With EQ, you can manage emotions to obtain the results you need. You do this by appealing to both reason and emotions, instead of trying to convince someone by facts alone.
High EQ leaders benefit the organization. They create a motivating, optimistic atmosphere. The positive climate that EQ creates enhances productivity and adaptability. People feel a mutual level of comfort, sharing ideas, learning from each other, and making collaborative decisions. They get things done.