Emotional intelligence, it’s a term that sounds….well….it sounds intelligent. But why should we know about emotional intelligence? What does it have to do with us? Isn’t this something that only scientist have to deal with, I mean it sounds so scientific and uninteresting! Well, that’s what I used to think, but recently I read an article about emotional intelligence and it was quite fascinating. I realized it’s really important for us to be aware of what emotional intelligence is, and how it affects basically every aspect of our lives, especially our careers.

Unless you live in a cave, in which case, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post, you will be affected by your emotional intelligence and the emotional intelligence of everyone you come into contact with. Of course, the most dramatic and direct effect will be with the people in your immediate family, co-workers and close friends. So what exactly is emotional intelligence? According to Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, leading researchers in the field of emotional intelligence since 1990, emotional intelligence is the ability to control your feelings and emotions in a way that guides your thinking and actions.

You may be wondering what all this has to do with you and why should we know about emotional intelligence. Well consider this; everyone has a certain emotional intelligence. If you understand how a person’s emotional intelligence can affect how they react to people, this knowledge can help you understand why this person behaves in a certain manner.  Take for example your workplace. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to get along with everyone and other people cannot get along with anyone at all. Once you understand that how we are able to deal with our moods and emotion varies depending on what type of person we are, it is plain to see why some people get along so well in the workplace and others do not.

Research has shown that intelligence plays a large role in a person’s professional success. It can also play a huge role in their lack of success. It is also worth noting that just because a person has advanced into a high level management position does not mean that they have high emotional intelligence. Why should we know about emotional intelligence? Well, haven’t you ever worked for a boss who sometimes sounds like a two-year-old or four-year-old having a temper tantrum?  You are dealing with someone who has a low emotional intelligence. Having this knowledge does not always make it easier to work with this person, but at least you can understand why they are acting this way.

So why should we know about emotional intelligence? Because having this knowledge can help you deal with people you are working with and it can also serve as a reminder to yourself regarding having a proper attitude in the workplace. For example, if you work for a person who has high emotional intelligence, this person will be levelheaded, calm, and not prone to outbursts.  If you have low emotional intelligence, meaning you are unable to fully control your emotions, how long do you think it will be before your manager will get tired of dealing with you?

This happened just recently and the company my husband works for.  There was a woman who could not get along with anyone, she was cantankerous, argumentative and on top of that was not able to complete her work satisfactorily. The end result was that she ended up being getting fired. If her emotional intelligence had been more developed and she had been able to control her emotions, she would have been successful at her job and would never have been fired.

In closing, a question you should ask yourself is, “Do I get along with most people at work?”  If you answer yes to this question, you most likely have a high emotional intelligence. However, if you find that you really have a hard time getting along with most people at work, you should find ways to better to control yourself. Your job or career may literally depend on you being able to control your emotions.

Motivation. Why we do stuff. It would seem pretty straightforward at first glance. Most of us would suggest it’s because we get some reward, whether tangible or not, as a consequence of our actions; an incentive is apparent at the conclusion and is known as The Incentive Theory of Motivation. There are six other main theories of motivation:

Need Theories

Championed by Abraham Maslow, the famed Hierarchy of Needs describes a pyramid of motivating needs that must be met before advancement to the next level, starting with physiological needs such as breathing, water, sex and food (though not necessarily in that order!), then safety needs such as warmth, shelter and security.

photo courtesy of Guillaume Brunet, Flickr

The pyramid continues upwards with love and belonging needs, through esteem, and capping out at self-actualization. A self-actualized person is someone whose “regular” needs are all being met. As a result, s/he is pretty much at peace with him or herself, living creatively, vitally, and meaningfully.

Before his death in 1970, Maslow suggested there was another level above actualization; self-transcendence. Think of people like Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama to give you an idea.

Drive-reduction theories

These theories suggest it is our biological drives that motivate us to act. Drives like hunger, thirst and sex. These drives increase in salience over time until they are sated, when the drive temporarily diminishes.

Clearly, this does not paint a complete picture of human motivational behavior. For example, it does not account for secondary reinforcers of behavior such as money.

Broad Theories

A relatively new concept in motivational theories is the “Onion-Ring-Model of Achievement Motivation” by Heinz Schuler, George C. Thornton III, Andreas Frintrup and Rose Mueller-Hanson. The concept is based on the premise that broad constituents of personality promotes performance motivation. As such, a range of dimensions not usually regarded as being involved are attributed to professional success. It combines the usually separate ideas of Need for Achievement with social motives such as control or dominance.

Cognitive Theories

Cognitive motivational theories centre around goal theory, wherein people strive towards clearly established end states. The efficiency of the goal is dependant on three measures; proximity, difficulty and specificity. Proximity refers to the time between behavior initiation and achievement of the end state and is inversely proportional to motivation magnitude; the less time, the more motivation. Which is why most kids would rather learn to ride a bike than do their algebra homework. Difficulty is self-explanatory. Specificity describes the clarity of the goal. If we don’t know exactly what it is we’re going to get, we don’t strive quite so hard to achieve it.

Models of Behavior Change

Motivation is regarded as a process that culminates in the molding of behavioral intentions. Volition is described as the process that bridges intent and actual behavior. Motivation is the setting of the goal, whereas volition is the pursuit of that goal.

Unconscious Motivation

If we delve into the psychoanalytical, we find, according to Maslow, “Psychoanalysis has often demonstrated that the relationship between a conscious desire and the ultimate unconscious aim that underlies it need not be at all direct.” In other words, motives that may seem obvious may well not be. For example, eating can be a defensive measure to combat lack of attention, rather than to satisfy a drive or need.

As can be seen, describing behavior is something of a toss-up. Many motivational theories co-exist, describing the same things in different ways.

photo courtesy of Cat Shilova, Flickr

Intelligence is an extremely broad subject. What we colloquially refer to as “intelligence” is not quite the same as the discipline studied by those governed by professional scientific endeavor. Interestingly, there are as many theories of intelligence as there are people that research it. This means the discipline is a hotbed of contention and overlapping models. If there is a consensus, it is that there is none. In a very loose fashion, however, scholars tend to slackly group around the idea that intelligence has many facets, thereby eluding a tidy, all-encompassing definition. Emotional intelligence is one of those facets.

Ask any layman what his definition of intelligence is, and you will get a similarly vague answer. It’s one of those things you know what it is, but it’s hard to pin down with words. Emotional intelligence, specifically, refers to “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”, according to John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey, two leading researchers on the topic.

Emotional intelligence is a relatively new field in psychology. Over these brief years, it has been shown that higher emotional intelligence is significantly tied to elevated social effectiveness. Namely:

• Someone with higher emotional intelligence is more effective at perceiving, understanding, managing and utilizing emotions.
• Ÿ They are generally more open and easy to get along with.
• Ÿ They are less likely to pursue risky endeavors such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse.
• Ÿ They are less likely to be violent.
• Ÿ They experience more positive social encounters.

Some researchers believe that emotional intelligence can be improved and reinforced, whereas others suggest it is a static characteristic, unmoved by outside influence.

Mayer and Salovey’s model proposes four different components of emotional intelligence:

• ŸThe Perception of emotion.
• Ÿ The ability to reason using emotions.
• Ÿ The ability to understand emotion.
• Ÿ The ability to manage emotions.

According to Mayer and Salovey, these four components are, “arranged from more basic psychological processes to higher, more psychologically integrated processes. For example, the lowest level branch concerns the (relatively) simple abilities of perceiving and expressing emotion. In contrast, the highest level branch concerns the conscious, reflective regulation of emotion.”

Can We Improve Our Emotional Intelligence?

As has been mentioned, opinions vary on this. However, it makes sense to assume that we “mature” emotionally as we grow older. We develop coping mechanisms that override emotional predispositions.

We can help the process along by actively focusing on methods to directly improve our emotional intelligence.

Observe yourself honestly. Do you rush to judgment or “go with your gut” before possessing all the facts? Do you stereotype? Instead of judging people based on flimsy evidence, empathize with their position and openly accept their perspectives and needs.

At work, do you pursue attention for your accomplishments? Quiet confidence beats pushy conceit any day. Humility gets noticed in a far more positive light.

ŸHow do you react to stressful situations? If you get upset when something doesn’t happen the way you want it to, you may instead want to look at ways to control and manage your emotions. Staying calm in stressful situations is a highly valued trait.

ŸTake responsibility for your actions. Apologizing for hurting someone’s feelings is a step in the right direction.

As with all things, emotional intelligence takes practice, and practice will make these elements second nature.