14 September 2021
Emotional Intelligence Exploration
This blog post will look at what emotional intelligence (EQ) is, how it differs from intelligence quotient (IQ), and why EQ is important.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (Emotional Quotient - EQ) is the ability to identify, evaluate, and control one’s own emotions as well as being able to identify, understand and respond to the emotions of others. EQ influences the ways in which we are able to deal with conflict and challenges, communicate with others, build meaningful relationships, and deal with stress.[1]
Emotional intelligence can be defined by five characteristics as explored by Daniel Goleman (1995)[2]
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Empathy
- Motivation
- Social skills
Self-awareness:
Self-awareness relates to being able to recognize your own feelings and emotions and how they impact your thoughts and behaviour. Being self-aware also enables you to not only recognize your strengths and weaknesses, but also acknowledge your ego.
Self-regulation
Self-regulation relates to having the ability to control your emotions, and impulsive thoughts and behaviour in a healthy way. It allows you to better adapt to changes and challenges you will face.
Empathy
Empathy relates to having awareness and the ability to be considerate of the feelings and needs of others. Having empathy for others means you can see things from someone else’s perspective, which will better help you to understand their feeling and emotions about a situation. Having empathy, helps to build strong and meaningful relationship with others.
Motivation
Motivation relates to one working towards their goals. In order to be motivated, one needs to identify what it is they are wanting to do/achieve and understand why they want to achieve this goal. Being able to recognize what and why will help motivate you to work towards this goal. Having this ability to will not only help you to motivate yourself but can also enable you to help motivate others to reach their goals.
Social skills
Social skills are very important in being able to make emotional connections with others. They enable us to communicate more effectively, develop relationships, understand others better, and help with achieving goals.
How is EQ different to IQ?
Intelligence quotient (IQ) measures one’s cognitive intelligence through their ability to use logic and solve problems.
So how does a person’s EQ and IQ differ? EQ is a learned ability, whereas a person’s IQ is an ability they are born with. A person’s EQ level is more of a reflection of their real-life success, whereas their IQ level reflects their success in academic learning environments such as school. IQ focuses on logical thinking, knowledge of the world, reasoning skills, problem solving, and memory. EQ however, focuses on the identification and understanding of the emotions of ourselves and others, the ability to control one’s own thoughts and behaviour, and using emotions to communicate and foster meaningful relationships with others.[3]
Why is EQ important?
Life can be extremely disorientating. Things are changing all the time, nothing is ever certain, it is often complicated by things out of our control and there is never a clear solution for the often-confusing problems we are up against. Not only do we have to navigate though life in the physical sense, but we also must do so on an emotional level as well. Being able to connect on a deeper level with ourselves and others though acknowledgement and understanding of one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviour, we can use this knowledge to respond to changes and deal with challenges more effectively. It helps us develop a stronger connection with ourselves and with others. EQ is important as it can help foster a more fulfilling, connected, and balanced life.