In organizations, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has taken a pivotal place in strategy formulation for business performance improvement. EI provides a structured pathway to improve the employees' self-awareness, self-management, and the way they interact with people and develop relationships. Higher EI leads to better leadership and interpersonal relationships, which, in turn, results in improved business performance.
For the past several years, a lot of significance has been laid on various aspects of intelligence such as logical reasoning, math skills, spatial skills, understanding analogies, verbal skills etc. The level of these skills together is commonly evaluated as Intelligence Quotient (IQ). This measure was also used to determine a person's suitability to a particular job. However, researchers discovered that some people with high IQ scores were doing poorly in their professional life. It was believed that they were wasting their potential by thinking, behaving and communicating in a way that stalled their chances of success. They were lacking in Emotional Quotient (EQ).
In 1990, two American university professors developed a way of scientifically measuring the difference between people's ability in the area of emotions. They found that some people were better than others at things like identifying their own feelings and the feelings of others, and solving problems involving emotional issues. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been defined as "The mental ability we are born with which gives us our emotional sensitivity and our potential for emotional learning management skills which can help us maximize our long-term health, happiness and survival." In 1995, Daniel Goleman, a New York-based writer, published the book Emotional Intelligence in which he presented information on the brain, emotions and behavior. This book helped in popularizing Emotional Intelligence (EI). |
