Author: Rashmi Kumari

In this article, you’ll learn about What Is Emotional Intelligence? Definition, Importance of Emotional Intelligence , Implications of Emotional Intelligence, Characteristics and Examples.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is most often defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. People with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments. Although the term first appeared in 1964, it gained popularity in the 1995 best-selling book Emotional Intelligence, written by science journalist Daniel Goleman. Goleman defined EI as the array of skills and characteristics that drive leadership performance.

Emotional Intelligence Definition

According to Daniel Goleman, “Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in our self and in our relationships”

According to Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, “Emotional intelligence is the ability to keep an eye on one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”.

Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence 

Goleman describes five core characteristics of emotional intelligence in organisational behaviour OB, which are as follows:

1) Self-Awareness: This dimension consists of knowing one’s internal state, resources, preferences,  and intuitions. It is the ability to recognize and interpret feelings as they are happening and to perform accurate self-assessment. This also includes the ability to be at peace with oneself and to have confidence in oneself. Self-awareness is being able to not let social norms get in the way of a personal mindset.

2) Self-Management/Self-Regulation: It is the ability to keep impulses and emotions in check by exhibiting self-control. It also includes the ability to keep standards of things, like honesty and respect. Self-management involves the ability for one to take responsibility for one’s actions, the ability to adapt to change, and the ability to come up with novel ideas and approaches to situations.

3) Motivation: It is the ability to guide and facilitate goals, both long-term and short-term. It involves a drive for achievement, the ability to commit and take initiative as well as a sense of confidence about a goal. Motivation usually involves doing things we do not want to do, yet doing them anyway.

4) Empathy: Another dimension of emotional intelligence is empathy. Emotional intelligence helps to read and understand the emotional make-up of others. It is the ability to understand others’ needs, perspectives, feelings, concerns, and sense their developmental needs.

Importance of Emotional Intelligence 

The importance of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior is as follows:

1) Building Strong Relationships: Emotional intelligence helps build strong relationships emotional intelligence is vitally important when talking about working with colleagues, friendships, or romantic relationships. With the ability to empathize, keep calm in the face of another person, understands the needs and wants of others, to be flexible enough to sustain a relationship, otherwise, things can go badly wrong.

2) Improves Communication with Others: When persons act with emotional intelligence they can improve their communication with others because they develop a whole set of skills and strategies that allow for more meaningful communications.

3) Better Empathy Skills: Empathy is understanding another person’s emotional makeup. It is a core emotional intelligence skill in communication. Without the ability to feel how the other person might be feeling, people are unlikely to have a close relationship or influence others effectively. They will always feel that they do not really understand them and they can be right.

4) Acting with Integrity: Integrity is another core of emotional intelligence ability. Integrity is an act of doing things right through their actions, beliefs, and words even when no one is watching them. It refers to the loyalty, honesty, and honourable behavior of a person in such a way that is consistent with his core beliefs, being true to himself and being honest with others. When a person acts with emotional intelligence and a high degree of integrity at work, this means that the person is trustworthy and reliable and therefore other people respect and trust him. 

6) Improved Career Prospects: All managers want to employ someone who is emotionally intelligent. They will not necessarily call it that though. Clued-up managers know that they can train people in technical skills much more quickly than they can train them in emotional intelligence.

7) Manage Change more Confidently: People with low emotional intelligence often find change difficult. They do not feel confident enough in themselves to bend and adapt to the wind of change. This means they often turn their face against change, denying the need for it, and eventually lose out as progress happens around them. Instead of adopting change and growing with it, they change only when forced to, even then reluctantly with poor grace.

Limitations of Emotional Intelligence 

For all its benefits, emotional intelligence has just as many limitations. These limitations are as follows:

1) Emotional intelligence is too Vague a Concept: Too many researchers, and it is not clear what emotional intelligence is. Is it a form of intelligence? Most of us would not think that being self-aware or self-motivated or having empathy is a matter of understanding. So, is Emotional intelligence a misnomer? Moreover, many times different researchers focus on different skills, making it difficult to get a definition of emotional intelligence. One researcher may study self-discipline. Another may study empathy. Another may look at self-awareness. The concept of Emotional intelligence has now become so broad and the components so variegated that, it is no longer even an intelligible concept.

2) Emotional intelligence cannot be Measured: Many critics have raised questions about measuring emotional intelligence. Because emotional intelligence is a form of intelligence, for instance, then there must be right and wrong answers about it on tests, they argue. Some tests do have right and wrong answers, although the validity of some of the questions on these measures is questionable. For example, one measure asks us to associate particular feelings with specific colours, as if purple always makes us feel cool, not warm. Other measures are self-reported, which means there is no right or wrong answer. For example, an emotional intelligence  test question might ask to respond to the statement, “I am good at ‘reading’ other people.” In general, the measures of Emotional intelligence are diverse, and researchers have not subjected them to as much meticulous study as they have measures of personality and general intelligence.

3) Validity of Emotional intelligence is Suspect: Some critics argue that because Emotional intelligence is so closely related to intelligence and personality, once you control for these factors, emotional intelligence has nothing unique to offer. There is some foundation to this argument. Emotional intelligence appears to be highly correlated with measures of personality, especially emotional stability. But there has not been enough research on whether emotional intelligence adds insight beyond measures of personality and general intelligence in predicting job performance. Still, among consulting firms and in the popular press, emotional intelligence is wildly popular. For example, one company’s promotional materials for an emotional intelligence measure claimed, “Emotional intelligence accounts for more than 85 per cent of star performance in top leaders.” To say the least, it is hard to validate this statement with the research literature.

Implications of Emotional Intelligence 

Emotional intelligence has several implications in organizations, both business and non-business. Emotional intelligence can be applied in the following areas:

Some of the implications of Emotional Intelligence are as follows:

• Filling Organisational Positions
• Credibility of Managers
• Effective Communication
• Stress Management
• Work Life
• Leadership Effectiveness
• Handling Frustration
• Conflict Resolution

1) Filling Organisational Positions: In any organization, various types of positions are created. These positions are at different levels and in different functional areas of the organization. An organization that is likely to succeed in these positions are occupied by those employees who can meet the requirement of these positions. Thus, while filling the various organizational positions, an attempt is made to match jobs and individuals. In this matching process, various characteristics of individuals are taken into account such as age, educational background, experience, personality, emotional maturity, etc. While all these characteristics may be important for performing jobs well, recent emphasis in the recruitment and selection process is being put on emotional intelligence because of its contribution to professional success. Because of this reason, many psychologists have made attempts to find out the level of emotional intelligence required for different types of jobs so that there is a match between employees and their jobs.

2) Work Life: Work life is concerned with the impact of work on people as well as on organizational effectiveness and the idea of participation in organizational problem solving and decision making. High emotional intelligence is very applicable in improving the quality of work life. Emotional intelligence stimulates motivation, eases, change, reduces stress, improves communication, and enhances rational decisions making. It develops positive thinking towards oneself and others. It protects people from threats of psychological nature generated by criticism.

3) Credibility of Managers: Credibility of managers is a prerequisite for managerial success, credibility is built by what one says and does. When there is a difference between what one says and does, a credibility gap exists. The credibility of a person is reflected in the features such as trustworthiness, integrity, honesty, informativeness, and dynamism. Through high emotional intelligence, all these features can be enhanced in a person because it stimulates consistency in behavior making the behavior highly predictable by others. Further, since high emotional intelligence leads to high self-esteem, the person adjusts his behavior according to the situation to protect his self-esteem. Thus, it can be safely concluded that high emotional intelligence enables a person to develop credibility.

4) Leadership Effectiveness: Leadership is a process of supporting and influencing others to work enthusiastically towards achieving the desired result. If a person influences his followers (in an organizational context, subordinates) for productivity on a long-term basis, he is an effective leader. High emotional intelligence on the part of the person leads to his effectiveness. 

According to Goleman, “Various resource person in leadership development offer their advice based on inference, experience, and instinct and not based on scientific data. With a result, leadership qualities are not developed appropriately”.

Goleman says that emotional intelligence, especially at the higher level of an organization, is the sine qua non for leadership. Data documenting the links between the emotional intelligence of leaders and the performance of organizations indicate a very high positive correlation.

5) Effective Communication: Emotional intelligence helps in perceiving the meaning of any message in its correct perspective. Similar is the case with sending the message. Often, in interpersonal face-to-face communication, body language, that is, the movement of various parts of the body of the message sender plays an important role. If the sender does not have emotional maturity, he is likely to communicate something different through his body language even though he may use correct words in phrasing his message. Emotional intelligence helps in avoiding such deformation in communication, thereby making communication effective. In general, emotional intelligence helps in making communication effective.

6) Handling Frustration: Frustration is the accumulated tension generated through the non-satisfaction of needs. Through the person may make repeated efforts for satisfying his needs, there may be many external factors that hamper need satisfaction and frustration goes on. This frustration is dysfunctional for a healthy personality and, therefore, must be overcome.

7) Stress Management: Since stress beyond the optimum level is dysfunctional, it must be managed effectively. Emotional intelligence helps in managing stress effectively. In fact, stress management largely depends on striking an emotional balance between a potential stress condition and one’s reaction to it. Any event has two aspects-positive and negative. If a positive aspect of the event is emphasized, it becomes less stressful because stress is a psychological phenomenon and depends on how one interprets an event.

Emotional intelligence stimulates for interpretation of an event in its right perspective by: 

• The event at work and in life and what cognitions it elicits.
• Becoming aware of the effects of such cognitions on the physical and emotional responses.
• Systematically evaluating the objective consequences of the event and 
• Replacing self-defeating cognitions that unnecessarily arouse stress.

8) Conflict Resolution: Emotional intelligence not only helps in resolving conflicts but also helps in creating situations for non-arousal of conflicts. If one analyses the real cause of a conflict, one may find that it takes place because of the incompatibility of attitudinal and emotional sets of the parties involved in it rather than any major issue. Thus, if attitudinal and emotional sets are managed properly, there is every possibility that conflict will not arise. Emotional intelligence helps in managing these sets by making people aware of why a person is taking a particular stand on an issue. This awareness helps in bringing the two parties involved in a conflict to the real issue breaking down the emotional vulnerability. When the parties to the conflict do not bring their emotion into the conflict, they are in a position to understand the real issues in the conflict and the conflict is resolved cordially.

Effective teamwork creates its own set of characteristics that makes it possible to see the cohesion in a group. When an efficient team gets to work, the structure that has been put into place helps the group obtain productive results. In order to create a productive team, you first need to be able to identify the characteristics of effective teamwork.

Pillars of Effective Teamwork

Pillars of Effective Teamwork are as follows

1. Unified Commitment to a Goal
2. Participation
3. Open Communication
4. Decision Making
5. Efficient use of Ideas

Unified Commitment to a Goal

A team is created to complete the goals it is given. An effective team is committed to completing its goal by using the team’s resources. It does not mean that as individuals the people that make up the team share the same point of view or are all in agreement on what is best for the group. It means that when the team is presented with a goal, they can come together and work as a single unit to complete the task.

Participation

In order for a team to act as a team everyone must be participating in the creation of a solution. A team does not have extra members. Each member of a team is essential to the team’s success, and when the group is given a task, each member knows what their job is and sets out to put in their fair share of the effort.

Open Communication

A team is able to communicate effectively and there is a feeling of open communication between all members of the group. Issues within a team are handled by face-to-face communication. Team members do not talk behind each other’s back as there is a respect developed among team members that necessitates direct and open communication on all issues.

Decision-Making

A team has a hierarchy and a built-in decision-making system that helps it to react quickly and effectively to all situations. The members of the group are respected for their various areas of expertise, and the leader of the group has developed the ability to obtain the group members’ opinions to formulate the group’s response. This applies to decisions made within the group ranging from resolving internal conflict to a potential change in group leadership.

Efficient Use of Ideas

Brainstorming is one way that groups come up with the solution to a problem. An effective team is able to gather information from each member and formulate that information into a response. The team becomes adept at dismissing ideas that will not work, and including effective ideas into what would become the team’s solution to an issue.

In this article, you’ll learn about Traits of an Effective Leader and more.

The traits of an effective leader

• Emotional stability. Good leaders must be able to tolerate frustration and stress. Overall, they must be well-adjusted and have the psychological maturity to deal with anything they are required to face.
• Dominance. Leaders are often times competitive and decisive and usually enjoy overcoming obstacles. Overall, they are assertive in their thinking style as well as their attitude in dealing with others.
• Enthusiasm. Leaders are usually seen as active, expressive, and energetic. They are often very optimistic and open to change. Overall, they are generally quick and alert and tend to be uninhibited.
• Conscientiousness. Leaders are often dominated by a sense of duty and tend to be very exacting in character. They usually have a very high standard of excellence and an inward desire to do one’s best. They also have a need for order and tend to be very self-disciplined.
• Social boldness. Leaders tend to be spontaneous risk-takers. They are usually socially aggressive and generally thick-skinned. Overall, they are responsive to others and tend to be high in emotional stamina.
• Tough-mindedness. Good leaders are practical, logical, and to-the-point. They tend to be low in sentimental attachments and comfortable with criticism. They are usually insensitive to hardship and overall, are very poised.
• Self-assurance. Self-confidence and resiliency are common traits among leaders. They tend to be free of guilt and have little or no need for approval. They are generally secure and free from guilt and are usually unaffected by prior mistakes or failures.
• Compulsiveness. Leaders were found to be controlled and very precise in their social interactions. Overall, they were very protective of their integrity and reputation and consequently tended to be socially aware and careful, abundant in foresight, and very careful when making decisions or determining specific actions. 

Beyond these basic traits, leaders of today must also possess traits which will help them motivate others and lead them in new directions. Leaders of the future must be able to envision the future and convince others that their vision is worth following. To do this, they must have the following personality traits:

• High energy. Long hours and some travel are usually a prerequisite for leadership positions, especially as your company grows. Remaining alert and staying focused are two of the greatest obstacles you will have to face as a leader.
• Intuitiveness. Rapid changes in the world today combined with information overload result in an inability to “know” everything. In other words, reasoning and logic will not get you through all situations. In fact, more and more leaders are learning to the value of using their intuition and trusting their “gut” when making decisions.
• Maturity. To be a good leader, personal power and recognition must be secondary to the development of your employees. In other words, maturity is based on recognizing that more can be accomplished by empowering others than can be by ruling others.
• Team orientation. Business leaders today put a strong emphasis on team work. Instead of promoting an adult/child relationship with their employees, leaders create an adult/adult relationship which fosters team cohesiveness.
• Empathy. Being able to “put yourself in the other person’s shoes” is a key trait of leaders today. Without empathy, you can’t build trust. And without trust, you will never be able to get the best effort from your employees.
• Charisma. People usually perceive leaders as larger than life. Charisma plays a large part in this perception. Leaders who have charisma are able to arouse strong emotions in their employees by defining a vision which unites and captivates them. Using this vision, leaders motivate employees to reach toward a future goal by tying the goal to substantial personal rewards and values.

Overall, leaders are larger than life in many ways. Personal traits play a major role in determining who will and who will not be comfortable leading others. However, it’s important to remember that people are forever learning and changing. 

“I like her attitude,” “He has a good attitude,” etc. Actually, it is characterized by the tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some object.

What is Attitude?

A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation.

Attitude influences an individual’s choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards (together called stimuli). An attitude can be a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, and ideas. It could be concrete, abstract or just about anything in your environment. 

Attitude Definition

Attitudes are evaluation statements either favourable or unfavourable or unfavourable concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something.

Robbins

 Attitude as an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world.

Krech and Crutchfield

Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or symbol of that object in a certain way.

Katz and Scotland

Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.

G.W. Allport

ABC Model of attitude

Every attitude has three components that are represented in what is called the ABC model of attitudes:

• A for affective,
• B for behavioral, and
• C for cognitive. 

ABC Model of attitude formation

1.Affective Component

First, the affective component refers to the emotional reaction one has toward an attitude object. Think of someone – we’ll name her Alice – who has ophidiophobia (a phobia of snakes). A snake is an attitude object. Whenever Alice is exposed to a snake – whether she sees one or thinks about one – she feels extreme anxiety and fear. This is only one component of this specific attitude, though; we will discuss the other two components a little later in this lesson.

Now, an attitude that is stemmed from or originally created by an emotion is called an affectively-based attitude. Attitudes about hot-button issues – such as politics, sex, and

religion – tend to be affectively-based, as they usually come from a person’s values. This type of attitude is used to express and validate our moral belief or value systems.

2.Behavioral Component

The next component of an attitude is the behavioral component, and it refers to the way one behaves when exposed to an attitude object. Think about Alice and her snake phobia again. We already identified the affective component of her attitude towards snakes – fear and anxiety. How do you think she behaves when it comes to snakes? Most likely, she avoids them whenever possible. If she does see one, she probably screams or cries. This behavior is the second component of that particular attitude.

3.Cognitive Component

The third and final component of an attitude is the cognitive component, and it refers to the thoughts and beliefs one has about an attitude object. We’ve already determined that Alice avoids snakes and is scared when she is exposed to them. But, what does she think about snakes? It’s likely she believes that all snakes are dangerous and gross. Beyond the physical and emotional reactions of her phobia, there is also this cognitive component of her attitude.

Characteristics of Attitude

1. Attitudes are the complex combination of things we call personality, beliefs, values, behaviors, and motivations.
2. It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very unfavorable.
3. All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
4. An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to define our identity, guide our actions, and influence how we judge people.
5. Although the feeling and belief components of attitude are internal to a person, we can view a person’s attitude from their resulting behavior.
6. Attitude helps us define how we see situations and define how we behave toward the situation or object.
7. It provides us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about people and objects.
8. It can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitude is those that we are consciously aware of an implicit attitude is unconscious, but still, affect our behaviors.
9. Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person.
10. An attitude is a summary of a person’s experience; thus, an attitude is grounded in direct experience predicts future behavior more accurately.
11. It includes certain aspects of personality as interests, appreciation, and social conduct.
12. It indicates the total of a man’s inclinations and feelings.
13. An attitude is a point of view, substantiated or otherwise, true or false, which one holds towards an idea, object, or person.
14. It has aspects such as direction, intensity, generality, or specificity.
15. It refers to one’s readiness for doing Work.
16. It may be positive or negative and may be affected by age, position, and education.