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| READERS' COMMENTS "Your article on emotional intelligence was exceptionally well organized, clear and effective... You should create, develop, extend and manage a strategic communications consulting company.... ... a hoax at least and and cruel joke at best... Nonsense and academic baffle-gab...if my skill level drops I am out the door." "I.. would like to tell you that I totally disagree with you." "I read your recent article on EI with some interest , untill I discovered it was not much different that many other Rah-Rah plans." Thank you.... You have made at least one middle-aged, slightly insecure-about-the-future lady extremely happy. Your article is, unfortunately, completely
correct..Until I read your article on EI, I didn't understand what was happening.
Your article on Emotional Intelligence is a slap in the face to
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By Anita
M. Harris There was a time when if you were smart and worked hard, you could pretty much expect to get ahead. But in today's team-oriented companies, emotional intelligence--the ability to access, manage, and make use of your feelings--may be far more important to your ongoing success than intellectual knowledge, or even technical skill. So says Richard Boyatzis, a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and professor of organizational behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Knowledge and skill may well help get you in the door. But, Boyatzis says, it takes an emotional understanding of yourself and those around you to accomplish just about anything at all. Such understanding is part of what has become known as emotional intelligence, or EI, and is especially important to success in the workplace. For example, if you are a systems programmer, "You can't just plop your system on the floor and assume that someone will pick it up and test it.... If you can't convince others that your work should be championed, it doesn't go anywhere." In fact, studies show that with increasing
job complexity, emotional intelligence becomes more important. According to Daniel Goleman, author of Working
with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1998), a clerk or machine operator with high cognitive
ability will probably do better at work than one who is not as bright. But at higher
levels, among executives, managers, engineers, and scientists, emotional competence can be
four times more important than cognitive abilities in explaining different levels of
performance. According to a 1997 study,
at top executive levels emotional competence accounts for nearly 90 percent of the
advantage that star leaders have over mediocre ones. Back
to Top What is emotional intelligence? Boyatzis says that emotional intelligence involves many competencies, or abilities, which he categorizes as either personal or social. Personal competencies rest largely on self-awareness and include characteristics such as self-control, adaptability, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, creativity, and innovativeness. Social competencies, Boyatzis explains, involve awareness of others. They may include empathy, political awareness, the ability to understand others' emotions, and other talents or skills needed to influence, communicate, lead, develop others, manage conflict, promote teamwork, or catalyze change. According to Goleman, everyone is born with some degree of emotional intelligence. However, the brain centers relating to our emotions can be affected by fear, crisis, stress hormones, upbringing, and other environmental or experiential factors. Such factors can have lasting impact on our ability to access or manage our feelings and may account for why some people are more emotionally attuned than others.
How emotionally intelligent are you? Another test is the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI), available through the Philadelphia-based Emotional Intelligence Services, with which Boyatzis and Goleman are affiliated. The ECI evaluates your emotional intelligence by asking those you interact with regularly about their perceptions of your communication style. You can administer the ECI to your boss, employees, peers, spouse, or customers in order to understand what impression you are making. In addition, Emotional Intelligence Services offers a free 10-question quiz that gives a rough assessment of your emotional intelligence level. It is also possible to take stock more informally. "Ask yourself, 'Do people like working with me?'" Boyatzis suggests. "Are you asked to be on project teams? Listen to what people are telling you. If they say 'calm down' a lot, chances are good that you're not exercising self-control. If the people you work with don't listen to your ideas, you're not influencing them very well. If you get feedback that you're not a team player ... that's a sign that you're not using certain EI competencies." You can also ask the people you
interact with, such as coworkers, family, or friends. Some questions to try: "Do you
think I'm managing myself well?" or "Do we have a good relationship?" Back
to Top How
can you improve your EQ? Still, Boyatzis says, many of our habits are ingrained in our neural pathways through earlier emotional experiences. As a result, enhancing emotional intelligence is not easy. "You've really got to want to change." If you are highly motivated, you might start by asking partners, your spouse, friends, coaches, or teachers to help you assess your strengths and weaknesses, he suggests. Then create an agenda and stick with
it. Back
to Top On your own Continuing
education
Individualized help Whatever route you choose, both Goleman and Boyatzis advise making sure that it involves personal interaction on a sustained basis and that you have a personal support system. If you enroll in a course or program, be sure that it encourages practice on your own time, provides mentoring, involves peer learning and buddy systems, and offers role models. Because, as Goleman points out, "emotional intelligence involves both yourself and others." In Boyatzis's words: "You can't do it on your own." Back to Top
ANITA M. HARRIS is a writer and communications consultant in the Boston area. She has written for numerous news organizations, including Newsday, National Public Radio, and the MacNeil-Lehrer Report. She can be reached via her Web site at http://www.harriscom.com/. Book: Emotional
Intelligence at Work, by Hendrie Weisinger (1997) |
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