Emotional Intelligence

If being a brainiac was the one and only criterion for being successful , everyone with a superior IQ would have be wildly successful — and obviously, that’s not always the case. Even a genius can waste their intelligence jackpot. But in reality, success is based on a whole lot more than genius alone. 

Persistence, practice, socio-emotional skills, our environment, the way we’re raised, and luck all combine to determine what we will achieve. Our potential isn’t fixed the day we’re born; rather, it's highly fluid and dependent on a number of both external and internal factors.Today’s world is a competitive world, and there is stiff competition, people need to compete. One needs to be competitive athelete in order to be a champion. But there is a catch here. With so many competitors out there, who are as equally as good as the other, whether they might be studying/ working/ in business/ entrepreneur (referexcerpts from TanuPriya’s interview above), the question is that what really creates the difference, what puts someone on the top? What separates one from being ordinary and someone from being unique, being determined? Well it’s the mind, which creates the difference.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is the one of the mostresearched attempt at measuring intelligence and by far the most widely used in practical setting. However, although IQ attempts to measure some notion of intelligence, it may fail to act as an accurate measure of "intelligence" in its broadest sense. IQ tests only examine particular areas embodied by the broadest notion of "intelligence", failing to account for certain areas which are also associated with "intelligence" such as creativity or emotional intelligence.

Concepts: Emotional Intelligence

It’s not the smartest people that are the most successful or the most fulfilled in life. There are people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. Intellectual intelligence (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to be successful in life. Ones IQ can get him into college, but it’s the Emotional Intelligence that manages the stress and emotions when facing final exams or during an interview.Salovey andMayer (1990) initially conceived the concept and coined the term Emotional Intelligence, which was derived from Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences. These included interpersonaland intrapersonal intelligence which were used by Salovey and Mayer (1990) to form the basis of the theory of emotional intelligence. Salovey and Mayer (1990) used this as a basis for their definition of emotional intelligence, which they define as the “ability to monitor and regulate one’s own and other’s feelings, and to use feelings to guide one’s thinking and action”. This definition identifies five main domains: knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, self motivation, recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships.

Emotional intelligence affects the performance at work, helps to navigate the social complexities of the workplace, lead and motivate others, and excel in career. It also affects physical health by managing the stress levels, which if left uncontrolled can lead to serious health problems. Alternatively it is also said that the first step to improving emotional intelligence is to learn how to relieve stress which in turn will also improve your mental health. By understanding ones emotions and how to control them, one is better able to express how to feel and understand others feeling. This allows communicating more effectively and forming stronger relationships, both at work and in personal life.

Utility: Emotional Intelligence Leads to Personal Achievement, Happiness, and Professional Success

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

With this in mind, instead of exclusively focusing on conventional intelligence quotient, one should make an investment in strengthening his/her EQ (Emotional Intelligence). The concepts of EQ may be elusive and difficult to measure, but their significance is far greater than IQ. IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for raising to the top ranks in any field today it being business, college, entrepreneurship, bureaucracy etc. By itself, a high IQ does not guarantee that you will stand out and rise above everyone else.Emotional intelligence is the single best predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. And when we increase our effective use of emotional intelligence, we will increase our ability to develop more solid, trusting relationships in theworking arena.

Simply put, emotional intelligence is that “something” within us that help us to sense how we feel and enables us to truly connect with others and form a bond. It gives us the ability to be present and listen to someone when they most need it. It is that sense of internal balance within us that enables us to keep our composure, make good decisions, communicate successfully, and maintain effective leadership even when under stress.Emotional intelligence consists of five main elements - self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation and social skills which are difficult to test for, and certainlyare not as “visible” as technical skills.

Application in administration & governance

Many civil servants are extraordinarily talented, conceptually brilliant and have a very high IQ. They excel in computers, science and mathematics. Sadly though, they are not particularly likeable people. Many of them are aggressive and brutal in their response to the outside world.  They have little or no feeling for people around them. They feel physiologically awkward in their relationships; have no social graces or even a social personal life. Being uncomfortable with themselves and making people uncomfortable becomes a routine response in their life. Comparing the difference between authority and responsibility in the first five years of a career in the civil services and of one in the private sector we find that while private sector types photocopy, draft minutes of meetings, makes cold sales calls and building useless but complex spreadsheets and civil servants run districts, allocate huge amounts of money, handle law and order. But as time marches on, a curious divergence emerges among people the same age — as private sector people get more successful, their risk-taking ability greatly increases. It is noteworthy the civil servants get more successful but civil servants get more their risk-taking ability decreases exponentially which is a problem. It is pertinent to mention that the top jobs in any organization — government, private or non-profit — need courage more than intelligence. This is where the Emotional Intelligence finds its place.

The tale of 2 civil servants will elaborate the point. Ravi and Sunil having same credentials, superb grade point averages from leading schools and universities, going for identical professional training as probationers, moment they join their respective postings as fresh magistrates, all similarity disappear. Though academically brilliant, Ravi believed that it was his administrative and technical proficiency that counted most on the job. Though not brilliant academically than Ravi, Sunil was adept interpersonally. On the job, few years later,Ravi was seen as a better administrator ending up being transferred every 6 months and Sunil, was recognized as a person who could work well in a team and take initiatives, devoting adequate time to his work, know his co-officers, projects and concerns and believed that one of the most effective ways for him to be accepted into the team was by helping out. Ravi failed to realize that building bonds was a crucial competence for his job. His co-officers knew that he was administratively adept, but they had little faith in his ability to work in a team. Sunil showed excellence in several emotional intelligence competencies which Ravi despite having an impressive curriculum vitae needed to master.

There is a crucial difference between declarative knowledge, that is, knowing a concept and its technical details, and practical knowledge, that is, being able to implement these concepts. Knowing does not equal doing, whether in playing a game, managing a team, or acting on essential advice at the right moment or doing an IAS job. Ravi lacked what Sunil had- emotional intelligence.

Name: Ramanjeet Gupta