Awareness of emotions and emotion regulation brings us back to the subject of Emotional Intelligence, which we wrote about in an earlier post. Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the 1995 New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence, views Emotional Intelligence as “a profile of specific competencies that range across four different areas of personal ability”. These four quadrants are from five realms of personal ability: know your emotions, manage your emotions, motivate yourself, recognize and understand other people’s emotions, and manage relationships (others’ emotions). There’s a close connection between emotion regulation and the building blocks of emotional intelligence.
According to Goleman, each of the four areas contains a set of learned competencies:
- Self-Awareness (knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions)
- Emotional Awareness: Recognizing one’s emotions and their effects.
- Accurate Self-Assessment: Knowing one’s strengths and limits.
- Self-Confidence: A strong sense of one’s self-worth and capabilities.
- Self-Management (managing ones’ internal states, impulses, and resources)
- Emotional Self-Control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check.
- Transparency: Maintaining integrity, acting congruently with one’s values.
- Adaptability: Flexibility in handling change.
- Achievement: Striving to improve or meeting a standard of excellence.
- Initiative: Readiness to act on opportunities.
- Optimism: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
- Social Awareness (how we handle relationships and awareness of others’ feelings, needs, and concerns.)
- Empathy: Sensing others’ feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns.
- Organizational Awareness: Reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships.
- Service Orientation: Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers’ needs.
- Relationship Management (skill or adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others)
- Developing Others: Sensing others’ development needs and bolstering their abilities.
- Inspirational Leadership: Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups.
- Change Catalyst: Initiating or managing change.
- Influence: Wielding effective tactics for persuasion.
- Conflict Management: Negotiating and resolving disagreements.
- Teamwork & Collaboration: Working with others toward shared goals. Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals
Leslie Riopel, MSc. states on PositivePsychology.com, “While not everyone agrees with the idea of Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence, there is general agreement that it does exist, and that it is a factor that comes into play in terms of professional and personal success. […] The idea of emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a positive trend because it is something that can be improved and developed … research suggests that emotional intelligence is something that one can improve upon over time.”
Emotional Intelligence frameworks don’t yield a “score” like IQ does. With accurate self-assessment or help from a coach, we can see the areas we could improve on that would be most helpful to us, or most in line with our goals. For example, many of the competencies listed above would contribute to success in a business setting. Others might contribute to success in our personal or family lives. Our emotional intelligence can be increased, which can lead to positive changes in our relationships, careers, and personal well-being.
Recommended Reading:
The article mentioned above by Riopel also provides graphs, grids, and diagrams to illustrate the frameworks and concepts of emotional intelligence.