Emotional Intelligence: Concept and Utility

Emotional intelligence is a set of organized skills that allows people to process emotionally relevant information professionally and accurately. Emotional intelligence overlaps with standard measures organized by the Big Five personality traits viz. openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Emotional intelligence has three conceptual models as follows:

EI as an ability

Salovey and Mayer, who had coined the term ‘emotional intelligence’, described it as a form of intelligence which involves the ability to monitor one’s thoughts, feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and finally to make use of the thinking to guide one’s thinking and action. EI was originally said to be a composite of four emotional reasoning abilities, namely:

• Appraisal and expression of emotion
• Regulation of emotion
• Utilisation of emotion

However, it was further expanded to include:

• Ability to perceive emotions
• Ability to use emotions to facilitate thought
• Ability to understand emotions
• Ability to manage emotions

EI as a set of competencies

EI is also seen as a set of competencies such as influence and self-confidence. EI provides one to develop potential to learn and develop emotional competencies which are essential in leadership effectiveness. All these competencies are organized in four clusters. These are:

• Self-awareness
• Self-management
• Social awareness
• Relationship management

As per Bar-On’s model of ‘emotional and social intelligence’ which is comprised of five primary components:

• Interpersonal skills
• Intrapersonal skills
• Adaptability
• Stress management
• General mood

EI as a trait

EI is also treated as a personality trait. Traits are predispositions of behaviour and thought which are lasting. Some examples of traits in their model include self-esteem, emotion expression and social awareness. The term ‘trait emotional self-efficacy’ was given by Petrides and Furnham. Trait EI which includes emotion-related behavioural dispositions and self-perceived abilities stands in contrast to EI which includes actual emotion-related abilities.

Developing a Definition

Emotional intelligence is thus a combination of intelligence and emotions while using emotions as being a source of information that help one to make sense of social environment. EI is a set of organised skills that makes people process emotionally relevant information professionally and accurately. It is thus noted that emotional intelligence overlaps with standard measures organized by Big Five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. EI is said to have four branches, namely:

Perceiving emotion

It refers to non-verbal reception and expression of emotion. Expression of emotions was a form of communication in all animal species. It is the basic capacity of correct perception of emotions which acts as a vital starting point for more advanced study of emotions.

Facilitating emotion

Emotions are used to facilitate thought by encouraging rational thinking. They encourage thinking towards something striking. Thus, emotions are essential for creativity.

Understanding emotion

A lot is conveyed via emotions. While happy emotions express excitement towards others, anger is a signal for danger and is harmful to others. Thus, emotions are usually linked to special reactions for every action. It is the understanding of these emotional messages which is essential for survival of our species.

Regulating or managing emotion

There is always a comfort zone of everyone within which it is possible to regulate one’s own and others’ emotions. This can be done for personal or other social ends. This implies that all emotional self-regulation varies with person and situation.

Utilities of Emotional Intelligence

The Emotional Competence Framework was formed by ‘The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations’. The Framework has listed many utilities based on social and emotional competencies of a person. All these are important for ensuring success at work.

Personal Competence

Self-awareness

• Emotional awareness: This deals with knowledge of one’s emotions and their effects. People having this competency are more aware of their feelings and performance.
• Accurate self-assessment: This involves being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses. One is open to feedbacks, new viewpoints, etc.
• Self-confidence: This relates to complete affirmation of one’s worth and abilities. They are usually more confident and are able to make sound decisions despite any uncertainties or pressures.

Self-regulation

• Self-control: This involves management of all disruptive emotions and impulses. People who are able to control themselves are more calm, positive and focussed.
• Trustworthiness: This comes after one has displayed standards of honesty and integrity. Trustworthy people are ethically strong, authentic and reliable. They are brave to admit their mistakes and are known to stand for tough and even unpopular decisions for larger good.
• Conscientiousness: This stands for taking responsibility for personal performance. People who have this competency are able to meet commitments and honour promises. They are highly organized and careful at work.
• Adaptability: This involves flexible attitude towards change. People with this competency find it easy to handle changing routines, multiple roles and even shifting priorities.
• Innovativeness: This involves getting easy with and open to new information and ideas. People who possess this are able to gather new ideas from multiple sources, set challenging roles and are able to take calculated risks. They evolve original solutions to various problems.

Self-motivation

• Achievement drive: This means striving to achieve a mark of excellence. People with this competence draw fresh ideas from many sources, are highly result-oriented, set quite challenging roles for themselves and constantly work towards improving their performance.
• Commitment: This means aligning oneself with the goals of group or an organization. These people are willing to make personal or group sacrifices to meet a larger organizational goal. They are active in seeking opportunities to fulfil the group’s mission.
• Initiative: This signifies the readiness on part of a person to act on opportunities. People who have this competency are able to seize opportunities and don’t hesitate to bend the rules when it becomes necessary to get the work done.
• Optimism: This means persistence in pursuance of goals despite all hurdles. Optimistic people are able to deal with any kind of setbacks and obstacles with ease. They always live in a hope of success rather under a fear of failure. They see all setbacks as manageable circumstances and not big obstacles.

Social Competence

Social awareness

• Empathy: This means sensing feelings and emotions of others and taking an active interest in their perceptions and perspectives. Such people are very responsive to emotional cues and listen to everything well.
• Service orientation: This involves anticipating, recognising and meeting the needs of the customers. Thus , it caters to matching products and services according to needs of the customers to maximise customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Developing others: This means gauging what others need in order to boost their confidence. People who develop others often acknowledge and reward other’s strengths, accomplishments and development.
• Leveraging diversity: This means cultivating opportunities through diverse people. People who leverage diversity are able to connect with diverse people, understand diverse worldviews and have sensitivity to group differences.
• Political awareness: This deals with reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships. People who possess this competency are able to read power relations accurately and are able to detect crucial social networks. They are able to monitor situations and other organizational realities with ease.

Social skills

• Influence: This stands for wielding of effective tactics for persuasion. All people who have influence are highly appealing to their listeners. They are able to build consensus and support using different strategies. They even plan dramatic events to make a point.
• Communication: This means sending across clear and convincing messages. People who are good communicators usually deal with difficult situations with ease. They are good listeners too and are able to listen well, seek consensus and are open to sharing information.
• Leadership: This stands for inspiring and guiding various groups and people. Good leaders are able to arouse enthusiasm, guide the performance of others and try to model the change they expect to see in others.
• Change catalyst: This stands for both initiating and managing change. People who act as change catalyst, recognize the need for change and change the status quo of knowledge. They are better known as champions of change.
• Conflict management: This involves negotiation and resolution of disagreements. Such people are able to handle difficult people and tense situations diplomatically. They are able to bring out any disagreements in the open and help deescalate them.
• Building bonds: This means nurturing instrumental relationships. People who build bonds are able to cultivate and maintain extensive informal networks.
• Collaboration and cooperation: This means working with others towards a shared goal. People with these competencies are able to strike a balance on task with special attention to relationships. They are able to build mutually beneficial relationships. They help others collaborate, share plans, information and resources. This helps in promoting a friendly and cooperative climate.
• Team capabilities: This involves creation of group synergy in pursuance of collective goals. People with this competence are able to model team qualities like respect, helpfulness and cooperation. This helps in drawing all group members into active and enthusiastic participation.