Emotional Intelligence: Brief Definitions
 

HR Era

Sent by Lucy Doss
 

Here is a brief outline of Emotional Intelligence

What is Emotional Intelligence?

The ability to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotion;
The ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought
The ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge
The ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

Elements of Emotional Intelligence

There are five elements of EI

Personal Competencies:

1. SELF-AWARENESS: Knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions.
2. MANAGING EMOTIONS: Managing one's internal states, impulses, and resources.
3. MOTIVATION: Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals.

Social Competencies:

4. EMPATHY: Awareness of others' feelings, needs, and concerns.
5. SOCIAL SKILLS: Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others.

SELF-AWARENESS

High self-awareness refers to having an accurate understanding of how you behave, how other people perceive you, recognizing how you respond to others, being sensitive to your attitudes, feelings, emotions, intents and general communication style at any given moment and being able to accurately disclose this awareness to others.

Skill Indicators

Know when you are thinking negatively
Know when your self-talk is helpful
Know when you are becoming angry
Know how you are interpreting events
Know what senses you are currently using
Know how to communicate accurately what you experience
Know the moments your mood shifts
Know when you are becoming defensive
Know the impact your behavior has on others

Skill Assessment

Do you recognize your feelings and emotions as they happen?
Are you aware of how others perceive you?
How do you act when you are defensive?
Are you aware of how you speak to yourself?

MANAGING EMOTIONS

The capacity to soothe oneself, to shake off rampant anxiety, gloom, despair, or irritability. The ability to be able to keep an emotional perspective.

Skill Indicators

Able to identify shifts in physiological arousal
Be able to relax in pressure situations
Act productively in anxiety-arousing situations
Calm oneself quickly when angry
Associate different physiological cues with different emotional states
Use self-talk to affect emotional states
Communicate feelings effectively
Reflect on negative feelings without being distressed
Stay calm when you are the target of anger from others

Skill Assessment

Do you use anger productively?
Can you manage your anxiety in times of change?
Can you put yourself in a good mood?

MOTIVATION

Be able to channel emotions to achieve a goal; to postpone immediate gratification for future gratification; to be productive in low interest, low enjoyment activities; to persist in the face of frustration and generate initiative without external pressure.

Skill Indicators

Able to "gear up" at will
Able to regroup quickly after a setback
Able to complete long-term tasks in designated time frames
Able to produce high energy in the context of low-enjoyment work
Able to change and stop ineffective habits
Able to develop new and productive patterns of behavior
Able to follow through words with actions

Skill Assessment

Are you persistent?
Do setbacks set you back?
Can you psyche yourself up?

EMPATHY

The ability to exchange information on a meaningful level. Adept in skills necessary for organizing groups and building teams, negotiating solutions, mediating conflict among others, building consensus, and making personal connections.

Skill Indicators

Work out conflicts
Build consensus
Mediate conflict between others
Exhibit effective interpersonal communication skills
Articulate the thoughts of a group
Able to influence others, directly or indirectly
Build trust
Build support teams
Make others feel good
Sought out by others for advice and support

Skill Assessment

Is it easy for you to resolve conflict?
How well do you give criticism?
Are you a good listener?
Do you frequently praise people?

SOCIAL SKILLS

Being aware of other people's feelings and emotions; being able to listen to their feelings; being able to help others deal with their feelings and emotions in productive ways and assist them in increasing their awareness about their own impact on others.

Skill Indicators

Able to accurately reflect back to others the feelings they are experiencing
Stay calm in the presence of others' distressful emotions
Recognize when others are distressed
Able to help others manage their emotions
Be perceived by others as being empathic
Able to engage in intimate conversations with others
Able to manage group emotions
Detect incongruence between others' emotions and their behavior

Skill Assessment

Are you skillful in managing the emotions of others?
How do you know when your boss is angry, sad, anxious?
Can you manage an angry group?
Are you comfortable with your feelings?

Emotionally Intelligent Organizations

The emotionally intelligent work group or organization has a culture that exhibits:

Organizational Self-Awareness of its internal and external needs;
Management of Organizational Emotions through leadership, celebration and environment;
Organizational Motivation through meaningful work and the delivery of incentives;
Organizational Empathy by maintaining effective and meaningful relationships with consumers and employees;
Mentoring of Organizational Social Skills through training, productive personnel selection practices, and performance appraisal.