Stephanie answers some FAQs... |
Back to FAQ index What Is Emotional Intelligence? Simply put emotional intelligence is emotional maturity. It is often referred to as the emotional quotient or EQ (as it's better known). Daniel Goleman -the author who originally popularised the topic - commonly defines it as a combination of our emotional and social skills. When boiled down, EQ is the ability to perceive, identify and manage one's own emotions. This is important because it provides the basis for the emotional and social competencies that are key to success in almost any job. As such EQ is divided into two categories: i) the ability to manage oneself and ii) the ability to get other people to co-operate with our ideas, suggestions or plans. And it's easy to relate to. We all know when we're overwhelmed by a foul mood it's hard to confront the challenges we face and even harder still to get others' co-operation. But if we can manage ourselves life is easier to cope with and so are all of our relationships. Managing our emotions is easy when we understand that feelings provide feedback about the choices we have made in the past or are currently making. To understand how feelings effect our energy, see pages 32 to 37 in my book "EQ: Emotional Intelligence for Everyone". So effectively EQ is about how we manage our choices - what you choose for yourself and how you opt to react to your circumstances. Everyone has it within his or her own power to constantly challenge and change these choices. What all this translates into is this: EQ is about being able to get your own way most of the time - but it's how you go about it that makes all the difference. We know that successful people seldom take 'no' for an answer but it's their level of EQ that determines a positive or negative outcome. Next FAQ: Why Is Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Important? Send us your questions and we'll happily answer them on these pages. |
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2006. All rights reserved. Page last updated on 10 May 2006.
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