Emotional Intelligence and Personal Growth

Essay by smalldaddyUniversity, Master'sA+, March 2006

download word file, 7 pages 2.0 1 reviews

Downloaded 418 times

Emotional Intelligence(E.I.)

Emotional Intelligence is defined as

"The ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence."

In Essence it is the capacity to understand our feelings and others' feelings and managing these emotions to motivate ourselves and others. An Emotionally intelligent person leverages his or her emotions to motivate one-self and others to succeed in his endeavors in life.

IQ versus E.I.

IQ is only a threshold competence and it is the emotional intelligence that distinguished the star performers from the rest. The advantages of good Emotional intelligence are:

- Effective Performance at work

- Outstanding leadership

- Deeply satisfying relationships

Research has shown that while some genetic factor may play a role in creating a person's Emotional intelligence, one can also learn E.I. Therefore, again both Nature and Nurture play a role in developing E.I.

Some of the salient features of E.I are:

- Born in the limbic system of the brain

- Learnt best through motivation, extended practice and feedback

- Needs much more time than IQ - not just grasping of logical concepts

Daniel Coleman in his book Emotional Intelligence enlists four fundamental E.I. Capabilities:

Individual Qualities Qualities with respect to the society

- Self Awareness

- Emotional Self-Awareness

- Accurate Self-assessment

- Self-Confidence

- Social Awareness

- Empathy

- Organizational Awareness

- Service Orientation

Self-Management

- Self-Control

- Trustworthiness

- Conscientiousness

- Adaptability

- Achievement Orientation

- Initiative

- Social Skill

- Visionary Leadership

- Influence

- Developing others

- Communication

- Change Catalyst

- Conflict Management

- Building Bonds

- Teamwork and Collaboration

Now to be self-aware a person passes through various stages of self-awareness:

In order to manage one's emotions one has to do the following:

1. Be Aware...