Concepts around emotional intelligence importance have gained enormous traction in recent decades. Conversations about EQ meaning and how it affects relationships have taken over from random comments or general remarks that refer to an individual’s IQ.
Unlike IQ, emotional intelligence can be acquired and developed. While conditions like acquired savant syndrome exist, where trauma enables previously inactive skills to emerge, there’s no definitive way to trigger the brain to perform better. Furthermore, while society tends to celebrate academic skills such as physics or finance, there are other ways to consider intelligence.
The term emotional intelligence is a diverse term used to identify nuances regarding nervous system regulation, social skills, social awareness and self-management.
Emotional intelligence importance may not be an immediately identifiable trait for job performance, however, there is research to say that emotional development can improve both interpersonal and professional skills.
While there is much to understand and an enormous amount to read on the topic, this article will provide an introduction that can help you to understand emotional intelligence affects as well as the concept as a whole.
What Defines an Emotionally Intelligent Person?
To develop emotional intelligence, you should, try to understand the overall concept itself. At its core, the idea of having multiple competencies and intelligences is not a new one, however, the concept was certainly thrust into the mainstream with the help of journalist Daniel Goleman.
Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence, which was published in 1995 has been recognised for popularising the science and approach to intelligence, leadership and much more.
The book, which was accepted by many who sought updated definitions for society’s intelligence quotient, was received with scepticism by the scientific community. While emotional intelligence importance has always been associated with concepts like empathy and self-awareness, studies to expand on the concept are relatively new.
Since 1990, further research on Goleman’s theory by professors Peter Salovey and John Mayer capitalised on the subjects growing popularity and by 2002 emotional intelligence importance became even spoken about when they launched a test that measured emotional intelligence affects. EQ meaning came about when the team decided to add more legitimacy to the name by adding in the word quotient.
Called the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) currently comprises about 141 questions that take between 30 and 40 minutes to complete.
The test, much like brain science, only for emotions, strives to measure emotional intelligence affects. In so doing, emotional intelligence can be acquired and developed. The test is about how well people are able to manage their negative emotions or sense the emotions of others. It also tries to measure emotional intelligence importance by identifying the impact of these four branches of emotional intelligence:
- Perceiving Emotions: this is the degree to which a person can observe emotions in themself as well as in other people or things like art, stories and music.
- Facilitating Thought: this is someone’s ability to feel and use emotion to effectively communicate or solve cognitive processes.
- Understanding Emotions: this is the degree to which someone is able to process emotions and emotional information.
- Managing Emotions: this is how someone is able to openly communicate their feelings and process them, as well as help others process theirs.
Considering these, it is easy to see the importance of emotional intelligence and why it has gained so much popularity. The controversy around the subject arises when it is compared to general intelligence. While it is easy to link work performance and intelligence, EQ meaning is not yet scientifically established enough to do that.
Still, the emotional intelligence importance cannot be underestimated when it comes to helping you to empathise, developing leadership and much more.
Bear in mind that even though the importance of emotional intelligence has not been scientifically proven to impact leadership skills, it makes sense that working on your emotional state and understanding can help to refine abilities and improve overall work performance.
Whether you are a student, CEO, gardener or astronaut, if you want to know how emotional intelligence can be acquired and developed, consider taking an EQ test which will identify areas and skills for development.
How to Benefit from Emotional Intelligence Affects
From learning particular social skills and how to control your facial expressions to becoming a more effective leader, there are many ways emotional intelligence can be acquired and developed.
While general intelligence may seem easier to measure and test using IQ tests, evaluating emotional intelligence can be more challenging.
Fortunately, there are many resources on the subject, some of them bestselling books as well as a podcast and advice from top psychologists that can help. All of these bear testimony to the fact that emotional intelligence can be acquired and developed.
One sure and simple way to develop emotional intelligence is to identify what emotional intelligence skills are, these can be:
- Knowing how to identify triggers associated with emotions like anger and stress.
- Understanding how to deal with emotions.
- Learning how to be an effective listener.
- Developing good communication skills.
EQ Meaning and Knowing How to Master Emotions
If you are not convinced about the importance of emotional intelligence, you could take a look at some of the reasons why it is important to participate in social-emotional learning. While emotions and feelings tend to be seen as aspects of our mental processes that work against reason and logic, success in life is often found in those who display high emotional intelligence.
While much scientific literature surrounds EQ meaning, the argument that emotional intelligence is a precursor for success is more linked to the characteristics that make up emotional intelligence that the concept itself.
For this reason, cultivating skills that lead to more authentic leadership, and that will help you to develop better mental habits is key. Still, the concept itself is so popular that people like Bill George, a Harvard professor have been writing about the strong link between leadership and emotional intelligence importance for years.
How Emotional Intelligence Affects Self-Awareness
If the importance of emotional intelligence is of interest to you, but topics like job performance and leadership are not, it is worth noting that developing EQ can be great for general well-being and mental health too. Through the practice of journaling, mindfulness and active empathy, developing your EQ can improve the quality of your relationships with your friends and family.
Recommended Online Resources for Social and Emotional Intelligence
Regardless of whether you want to improve your rapport with salespeople, seek to develop your emotional awareness, or simply want to enhance your relationship management, social and emotional learning is an excellent investment.
The challenge may be knowing where and how to start. Fortunately, there are so many excellent resources on the theory of multiple intelligences as well as tests to measure emotions and soft skills.
So where to begin? Everyone knows that the best place to start searching for information these days is the internet. From podcasts about emotional intelligence to entire websites that are dedicated to expounding on scientifically-backed information, there is no shortage of information on the topic. Here are three excellent resources to check out on the topic of emotional intelligence:
- HelpGuide
- Goleman's bestseller Emotional Intelligence
- Six Seconds
These as well as many other resources are excellent ways to gain background information as you start out on your journey to discover more about the meaning of EQ.
Finally, there is no doubt that as society evolves the concept of emotional intelligence will grow in importance. As an example, think about the buzzword ‘woke’ that has become prevalent in popular culture to describe those in society who are more emotionally attuned to the nuances of social correctness.
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