062 What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?

Are you smart? Emotionally smart? What is emotional intelligence and why is it important to get emotionally smarter?

This week’s Inspire Me quote is from Eleanor Roosevelt:

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”

Emotional intelligence is our capacity to understand and manage our emotions and those of others. As a psychological theory, it was developed by Peter Salovey (President of Yale University) and John Mayer (Psychologist, University of New Hampshire). In 1995, it was popularized by New York Times science journalist Daniel Goleman. His book, Emotional Intelligence, spent more than a year-and-a-half on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Emotional intelligence is one of the greatest indicators to the level of success an individual can attain. Goleman lists five categories of emotional intelligence:

1. Self-awareness. The ability to recognize an emotion as it happens.
2. Self-regulation. The ability to control emotions as you experience.
3. Internal motivation. The ability to work for intrinsic reasons.
4. Empathy. The ability to understand and engage with the emotional responses of others.
5. Social skills. The ability to develop relationship and rapport.

This week’s Challenge Me:

Self-awareness exercise: What situations or people are most likely to trigger an emotional response which stresses you or is more difficult to manage?

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

• Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman, 1995. The classic book on emotional intelligence.
• Promotional intelligence, Salon, June 28, 1999 article on the origins of the concept of emotional intelligence