Emotional awareness and emotional sensitivity are important components of Emotional Intelligence (EI). True EI is not about manipulating people. It implies knowing what you and others are feeling and acting ethically—with a social conscience. The article looks into the nuances of this emerging issue of EI.
Of late, the term EI is increasingly becoming popular in many organizations. Given the complexity of modern life, it is imperative that we understand our emotions better so that our effectiveness at workplace is significantly enhanced. The interpersonal relations in the workplace are an important soft skill that impacts our performance and determines managerial effectiveness. At a personal level too, our relationships with parents, spouse and children become healthy and we can improve the quality of our life and lead a more fulfilled life without dissipating our energies on trivialities. Emotions shape our actions and decisions in a significant manner. The word EI was originally coined by Yale psychologists Peter Salovey and the University of New Hampshire's John Mayer to describe qualities like understanding one's own emotions, empathy for the feelings of others, and managing one's emotions.
Educators, human resources managers and corporate trainers—all have been conducting extensive research to understand what sets apart the average performer from the star performer in the context of workplace. The hard skills like technical competence and high-level of job-related knowledge are no doubt very essential for success at workplace. But the main differentiating factor between a good performer and average performer is the soft skills like EI. It is an ability to understand one's own feelings and emotions and also deal with the human feelings of others. At work, academic brilliance is but a small factor for success. EI is far more significant. It is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others. It is an ability to manage our emotions in a mature way and ensure a healthy relationship in our social transactions with others. This is somewhat similar to adult-to-adult complimentary transactions in the psychoanalysis literature. |
