Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is THE key determinate of success for an individual and an organisation. If you have it, build it, nurture it and celebrate it you will have a competitive advantage moving forward.
EQ is an on-trend term amongst modern leaders, recruiters, and analysts. It is bandied around and mixed with other jargon by many an HR expert, but simple explanations of its’ determinates and measurement are few and far between. I hope to remove the ambiguity for you through this article.
Howard Gardner (developmental psychologist at Harvard) defines it succinctly as “Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them”.
No further ahead with that? Me either!
Obviously the scope needs to be narrowed somewhat from here.
WHAT MAKES UP EQ?
There are 5 key components that contribute to the special sauce that is EQ. Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. I will briefly frame each of these for you:
Self awareness: recognise and evaluate your emotions and their effects
Self regulation: managing impulses, maintaining integrity and handling change
Motivation: consistently striving to improve and achieve personal and collective goals
Empathy: sensing, anticipating, understanding, and positively reacting to the emotions and needs of others
Social skills: Effective and positive communication, collaboration, negotiation, and inspiration
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
With the continual rapid rate of retooling and upskilling required to compete and succeed in the modern economy, people have become more anxious, cynical, and insecure, especially in the workplace and marketplace. Building positive and trusting relationships with colleagues and clients is essential in the development and differentiation of you and your team. It can be your competitive advantage.
HOW IS IT MEASURED?
Usually these ‘tests’ are self-reporting audits (in some instances they are observer ratings, from colleagues or superiors). Respondents are asked about their likely response to theoretical scenarios, with the questions loosely related to the behavioural factors identified above. A quick search of Google will highlight the many (and varied) options in the assessment tool space. To my mind, the one critical downfall in all the testing instruments I have seen is the fact they are reliant on honesty/integrity and self-awareness. Anyone truly lacking in EQ is likely to have frailties in these two highly influential areas and hence the likelihood of skewed data is quite high. This issue notwithstanding, the key benefits of increased awareness and subsequent incremental improvements can still be achieved, purely through repeated exposure to these measurement devices.
HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LEVEL?
As alluded to above, gaining an understanding of what EQ is comprised of and the optimal responses in certain situations, you can consciously work to improve your behaviour-based habits. If you know, accept, and embrace your current strengths and weaknesses you can actively engage in enhancing your strengths and minimising your weaknesses.
Awareness is the key to improvement in this area. Do you rush to judge, perpetuate stereotypes, deflect accountability, resent criticism, ignore or become surly when stressed? Answering “occasionally yes” to these (or other low-EQ behaviours) doesn’t necessarily equate to a big issue, but “often yes” certainly does. These high repetition behaviours are an essential start-point for improvement. It isn’t a about full eradication, that’s unrealistic, but a significant reduction is a fair expectation for yourself and your colleagues. Once these changes have been realised, the next step should be to identify the behaviours that people take highest exception to from one another and address these.
Personally, I believe “the re-do” is the best tactic to employ for personal and collective improvement. Any time you have a lapse in your high-EQ behaviour, make it a priority to re-do that interaction with the person affected as soon as possible. Reflect on your mistake and rectify it by firstly apologising, then (in an authentic way) behave as you wish you had done initially. Own your error and make amends in a timely manner. A simple strategy that quickly builds (or repairs) trust and respect levels.
So, there you have it, EQ in a nutshell. This won’t be an easy or quick fix, especially for those with low quotient levels, but the impact (especially over the long-term) will be well worth the effort.