ethics -Emotional intelligence

Emotional Intelligence

Background:

·         In 1983, Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences introduced the idea that traditional types of intelligence, such as IQ, fail to fully explain cognitive ability.

·         He introduced the idea of multiple intelligences which included both interpersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people) and intrapersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings, fears and motivations).

·         The term "emotional intelligence was coined in 1990 by psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey

·         However, the term became widely known with the publication of Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ  (1995). It is to this book’s best-selling status that the term can attribute its popularity.

·         Emotional Intelligence - intelligence of the heart - has its roots in the concept of 'social intelligence,' first identified by E.L. Thorndike in 1920.

·         Thorndike defined social intelligence as, "The ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls - to act wisely in human relations."

Definition:

• Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.

• People with high EQ demonstrate a high level of self awareness, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
• Daniel Goleman- believes that IQ is a threshold quality: It matters for entry- to high-level management jobs, but once you get there, it no longer helps leaders, because most leaders already have a high IQ.
•  According to Goleman, what differentiates effective leaders from ineffective ones becomes their ability to control their own emotions and understand other people’s emotions, their internal motivation, and their social skills.
• (Intelligence Quotient / IQ is ability to learn, understand and apply information to skills, logical reasoning, word comprehension, math skills, abstract and spatial thinking, filter irrelevant information.)

·         However, substantial disagreement exists regarding the definition of EI, with respect to both terminology and operationalizations.

·         Emotional Intelligence (often given the acronym EQ, the emotional-intelligence equivalent of IQ) encompasses social intelligence and emphasizes the affect of emotions on our ability to view situations objectively and thus to understand ourselves and other people.

·         It is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power of emotions, appropriately channelled as a source of energy, creativity and influence.

·         It includes a person's ability to understand their own emotions and those of others, and to act appropriately using these emotions.

·         Balancing and integrating the head and heart, channelled through the left and right brain, is the mission of personal growth work in the domain of emotional intelligence.

EQ includes such things as: 


• Identifying your feelings and needs, through body-awareness.
• The ability to read others’ feelings, and to listen to others with empathy.
• Knowing how to express your feelings with words and/or body-language.
• Choosing when to contain (not repress) emotion, and when to communicate emotion appropriately.
• The ability to process and let go of emotion when necessary.
• The willingness to give ourselves time to feel, and to enjoy the depths of our ‘selves’ through feeling.
• The ability to lead wisely or follow with grace.
• The ability to honor our own limits, as well as to celebrate our talents.
• The ability to give and receive love.

Currently, there are three main models of EI:

·         While several theories associated with the emotional intelligence paradigm currently exist, the three that have generated the most interest in terms of research and application are the theories of Mayer and Salovey, Baron and Goleman.

·         The first model by Peter Salovey and John Mayer perceives emotional intelligence as a form of pure intelligence, that is, emotional intelligence is a cognitive ability. A second model by Reuven Bar-On visualized emotional intelligence as a mixed intelligence, consisting of cognitive ability and personality aspects.

·          This model emphasizes how cognitive and personality factors influence general well-being.

·         The third model, introduced by Daniel Goleman, also observes emotional intelligence as a mixed intelligence involving cognitive ability and personality aspects.

·         However, unlike the model proposed by Reuven Bar-On, Goleman's model focuses on how cognitive and personality factors determine workplace success.

·         While all of these theorists have been associated with the emotional intelligence paradigm, a closer reading of their writing over time will reveal a significant divergence in the specific language they use to label their theories and constructs.

1.      Ability model

2.      Mixed model

3.      Trait model

1. Ability Model:  Salovey and Mayer

• The ability-based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment.
• The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition.
•  This ability is seen to manifest itself in certain adaptive behaviors.
• The model claims that EI includes four types of abilities:

·         The model claims that EI includes four types of abilities:

1. Perceiving emotions – the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one’s own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
2. Using or reasoning or facilitating emotions – the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
3. Understanding emotions – the ability to comprehend emotion’s language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time. e.g- if someone is expressing angry emotions , the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean.
4. Managing emotions – the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

·         According to Salovey and Mayer, the four branches of their model are, “arranged from more basic psychological processes to higher, more psychologically integrated processes.

·          For example, the lowest level branch concerns the (relatively) simple abilities of perceiving and expressing emotion.

·          In contrast, the highest level branch concerns the conscious, reflective regulation of emotion”.

·         Thus, emotional intelligence is defined by Mayer and Salovey as a group of mental abilities, and is best measured using a testing situation that is performance ability based.

·          This focus on objective, performance-based assessment is similar in spirit to the methods used to measure traditional intelligence (IQ).

2. Mixed model:

• The model introduced by Daniel Goleman focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance.

·         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

Goleman’s model outlines five main EI constructs:

1. Self-awareness – the ability to know one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.

·         The major elements of self-awareness are as follows

·         Emotional Awareness -Your ability to recognise your own emotions and their effects.

·         Self-confidence- Sureness about your self-worth and capabilities.

2. Self-regulation / Self-management – involves controlling or redirecting one’s disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

Self-regulation involves

·         Self-control- Managing disruptive impulses.

·         Trustworthiness- Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity.

·         Conscientiousness-“raking responsibility for your own performance.

·         Adaptability- Handling change with flexibility.

·         Innovation- Being open to new ideas.

3. Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction

Among the most useful skills are

·         Influence -Wielding effective persuasion tactics.

·         Communication -Sending clear messages.

·         Leadership- Inspiring and guiding groups and people.

·         Change Catalyst- Initiating or managing change.

·         Conflict Management- Understanding, negotiating and resolving disagreements.

·         Building Bonds- Nurturing instrumental relationships.

·         Collaboration and Cooperation- Working with others toward shared goals.

·         Team Capabilities- Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

4. Empathy – considering other people’s feelings especially when making decision

An empathetic person excels at

·         Service Orientation Anticipating, recognising and meeting clients’ needs.

·         Developing Others Sensing what others need to progress and bolstering their abilities.

·         Leveraging Diversity Cultivating opportunities through diverse people.

·         Political Awareness Reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships.

Understanding Others Discerning the feelings behind the needs and wants of others

5.      Motivation – being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.

Motivation is made up of

·         Achievement Drive- Your constant striving to improve or to meet a standard of excellence.

·         Commitment- Aligning with the goals of the group or organisation.

·         Initiative -Readying yourself to act on opportunities.

Optimism -Pursuing goals persistently despite obstacles and setbacks

First four of these five main EI constructs can be explained by following figure:

·         Many business orientated models represent these five domains in four quadrants:

·          two represent personal competence and

·          two represent social competence.

Personal Competence

·         This area of competence is concerned with three of the five ‘domains’ Goleman referred to and is split into two quadrants: self-awareness and self-management.

·         Self-Awareness – It means that you understand how you feel and can accurately assess your own emotional state.

·         There are three components to this quadrant:

·         self-awareness,

·         accurate self-assessment, and

·          Self-confidence.

·         Self-assessment includes understanding your own strengths and weaknesses. It is also about being willing to explore them both, either by thinking about them yourself or by discussing them with others.

·          Self-confidence is the ability to ground oneself so that you are secure and self-assured in whatever situation you may find yourself.

·         Self-Management – It builds on the understanding that you gained with self-awareness and involves controlling your emotions so that they don’t control you. This could equally be called self-control – in other words how you regulate to maintain your equilibrium in the face of any problem or provocation you may face.

·         It looks into how trustworthy and conscientious you are, as well as how you motivate yourself to achieve, taking into account your level of commitment and optimism.

Social Competence

·         This area of competence is concerned with Goleman’s remaining two ‘domains’:

·          social awareness and

·         Social skills.

·         These skills look at how well you manage your relationships with others, including their emotions.

·         Social Awareness – It involves expanding your awareness to include the emotions of those people around you.

·         It includes being able to empathize with others and being aware of how the organization that you are working in affects them. This covers your ability to read the emotional environment and power relationships you encounter in your role.

·         Relationship Management – It means using an awareness of your own emotions and those of others to build strong relationships. It includes the identification, analysis, and management of relationships with people inside and outside of your team as well as their development through feedback and coaching. It also incorporates your ability to communicate, persuade, and lead others, whilst being direct and honest without alienating people.

EI as learned capabilities

• Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI.
• Emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance.
•  Goleman posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies.
• Emotional competence refers to one’s ability to express or release one’s inner feelings (emotions).
• Emotional capital is the set of personal and social emotional competencies which constitute a resource inherent to the person, useful for the personal, professional and organizational development and takes part in social cohesion, to personal, social and economic success.
• Furthermore, because of its impact on performance (as at work), on well-being (life satisfaction, health etc) and on social cohesion and citizenship, emotional capital should be taken into account seriously by public and educational policy-makers and practitioner and companies
• This theory represents a framework of emotional intelligence that reflects how an individual’s potential for mastering the skills of Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management translates into success in the workplace.

3. Trait model:

• Konstantinos Vasilis Petrides ("K. V. Petrides") Petrides proposed a conceptual distinction between the ability based model and a trait based model of EI.
• Some examples of traits in their model include self-esteem, emotion expression and social awareness.

• EI refers to an individual’s self-perceptions of their emotional abilities.
• This definition of EI encompasses behavioral dispositions and self-perceived abilities and is measured by self report, as opposed to the ability based model which refers to actual abilities, which have proven highly resistant to scientific measurement.
• An alternative label for the same construct is trait emotional self-efficacy. 
• Self-efficacy is the extent or strength of one’s belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals.
• The trait EI model is general and subsumes the Goleman’s Mixed Model discussed above.

Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue)

·         One of the more comprehensive and widely researched measures of this construct is the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), which was specifically designed to measure the construct comprehensively and is available in many languages.

·         The test encompasses 15 subscales organized under four factors:

·         well-being,

·          self-control,

·          emotionality, and

·         sociability.

·         TEIQue scores were positively related to some of the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness) as well as inversely related to others (alexithymia, neuroticism).

·         The researchers also found TEIQue scores were unrelated to nonverbal reasoning which they interpreted as support for the personality trait view of EI (as opposed to a form of intelligence)

Merits of high EI

·         Better social relations for children – Among children and teens, emotional intelligence positively correlates with good social interactions, relationships and negatively correlates with deviance from social norms, anti-social behavior measured both in and out of school as reported by children themselves, their own family members as well as their teachers.

·         Better social relations for adults – High emotional intelligence among adults is correlated with better self-perception of social ability and more successful interpersonal relationships while less interpersonal aggression and problems.

·         Highly emotionally intelligent individuals are perceived more positively by others – Other individuals perceive those with high EI to be more pleasant,socially skilled and empathic to be around.

·         Better family and intimate relationships – High EI is correlated with better relationships with the family and intimate partners on many aspects.

·         Better academic achievement – Emotional intelligence is correlated with greater achievement in academics as reported by teachers but generally not higher grades once the factor of IQ is taken into account.

·         Better social relations during work performance and in negotiations – Higher emotional intelligence is correlated with better social dynamics at work as well as better negotiating ability.

·         Better psychological well-being.- Emotional intelligence is positively correlated with higher life satisfaction, self-esteem and lower levels of insecurity or depression. It is also negatively correlated with poor health choices and behavior.

MEASURING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Intelligence is ability and is directly measured only by having people answer questions and evaluating correctness of those answers.

Following are the various measures by which emotional intelligence is measured

·         Reuven Bar-On’s EQ-I

·         A self-report test designed to measure competencies including awareness, stress, tolerance, problem solving and happiness.

·         According to Bar-On, ‘Emotional intelligence is an array of non-cognitive capabilities, competencies and skills that influence one’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures.’

·         Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS)

·         An ability-based test in which test-takers perform tasks designed to assess their ability to perceive, identify, understand and utilise emotions.

·         Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ)

·         Originally designed as a screening test for the life insurance company Metropolitan Life, the SASQ measures optimism and pessimism.

·         Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)

·         Based on an older instrument known as the Self-Assessment Questionnaire, the ECI involves having people who know the individual offer ratings of that person’s abilities on a number of different emotional competencies.

Developing emotional intelligence

·         Emotional Intelligence (El) is built by reducing stress, remaining focused and staying connected to yourself and others. You can do this by learning five key skills.

·         The first two skills are essential for controlling and managing overwhelming stress and the last three skills greatly improve communication.

·          Each skill builds on the lessons learned in practicing the earlier skills and includes the following

·         The ability to quickly reduce stress in the moment in a variety of settings.

·         The ability to recognise your emotions and keep them from overwhelming you.

·         The ability to connect emotionally with others by using non-verbal communication.

·         The ability to use humour and play to stay connected in challenging situations.

·         The ability to resolve conflicts positively and with confidence.

Skill for developing emotional intelligence

SKILL 1 RAPIDLY REDUCE STRESS

• When we are under high level of stress, rational thinking and decision-making is blocked.
• Run away stress overwhelms the mind and body, getting in the way of our ability to accurately ‘read’ a situation, hear what someone else is saying, be aware of our own feelings and needs and communicate clearly.
• The first key skill of emotional intelligence is the ability to quickly calm yourself down when you are feeling overwhelmed.
•  Being able to manage stress in the moment is the key to resilience.
• This emotional intelligence skill helps you stay balanced, focused and in control no matter what challenges you face. Develop your stress busting skills by working through the following three steps

1. Realise when you are stressed

·         The first step to reducing stress is recognising what stress feels like.

·          How does your body feel when you are stressed?

·         Are your muscles or stomach tight or sore?

·         Are your hands clenched?

·         Is your breath shallow?

·         Being aware of your physical response to stress will help regulate tension when it occurs.

2. Identify your stress response

·         Everyone reacts differently ‘to stress.

·          If you tend to become angry or agitated under stress, you will respond best to stress-relieving activities that quiet you down.

·          If you tend to become depressed or withdrawn, you will respond best to stress-relieving activities that are stimulating.

·         If you tend to freeze speeding up in some ways while slowing down in others, you need stress-relieving activities that provide both comfort and stimulation.

3. Discover the stress-busting techniques that work for you

·         The best way to reduce stress quickly is by engaging one or more of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

·          Each person, responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing and/or energising to you.

·         e.g., if you’re a visual person, you can relieve stress by surrounding yourself with uplifting images.

·          If you respond more to sound, you may find a wind chime, a favourite piece of music or the sound of a water fountain helps to quickly reduce your stress levels.

SKILL 2 CONNECT TO YOUR EMOTIONS

• The second key skill of emotional intelligence is having a moment to moment awareness of your emotions and how they influence your thoughts and actions.
• Emotional awareness is the key to understanding yourself and others.

·         Do you experience feelings that flow, encountering one emotion after another as your experiences change from moment to moment?

·         Are your emotions accompanied by physical sensations that you experience in places like your stomach or chest?

·         Do you experience discrete feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, joy, each of which is evident in subtle facial expressions?

·         Can you experience intense feelings that are strong enough to capture both your attention and that of others?

·         Do you pay attention to your emotions? Do they factor into your decision-making?

SKILL 3 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

• Being a good communicator requires more than just verbal skills and the ability to manage stress.
•  Often, what you say is less important than how you say it or the other non-verbal signals you send out the gestures you make, the way you sit, how fast or how loud you talk, how close you stand or how much eye contact you make.
• In order to hold the attention of others and build connection and trust, you need to be aware of and in control of, this body language.
•  You also need to be able to accurately read and respond to the non-verbal cues that other people send you.
• These messages don’t stop when someone stops speaking.
• Even when you’re silent, you’re still communicating non verbally
• Think about what you are transmitting as well, and if what you say matches what you feel if you insist, ‘I’m fine,’ While clenching your teeth and looking away, your body is clearly signaling the opposite.
• This wordless form of communication is emotionally driven.
•  It asks the questions: ‘Are you listening?’ and ‘Do you understand and care?’ Answers to these questions are expressed in the way we listen, look, move and react.

Part of improving non-verbal communication involves paying attention to

·         Successful non-verbal communication depends on your ability to manage stress, recognise your own emotions and understand the signals you’re sending and receiving, when communicating.

·         Focus on the other person. If you are planning what you are going to say next, daydreaming or thinking about something else, you are almost certain to miss non-verbal cues and other subtleties in the conversation.

·         Make eye contact. Eye contact can communicate interest, maintain the flow of a conversation and help gauge the other person’s response.

·         Pay attention to non-verbal cues you’re sending and receiving, such as facial expression, tone of voice, posture and gestures, touch and the timing and pace of the conversation.

SKILL 4 USE HUMOUR AND PLAY TO DEAL WITH CHALLENGES

• Humour, laughter and play are natural antidotes to life’s difficulties.
•  They lighten our burdens and help us keep things in perspective.
• A good hearty laugh reduces stress, elevates mood and brings our nervous system back into balance.
• The ability to deal with challenges using humour and play is the fourth skill of emotional intelligence.
• Playful communication broadens our emotional intelligence and helps us.

·         Take hardships in stride By allowing you to view your frustrations and disappointments from new perspectives, laughter and play enable you to survive annoyances, hard times and setbacks.

·         Smooth over differences Using gentle humour often helps you say things that might be otherwise difficult to express without creating a flap.

·         Simultaneously relax and energise ourselves Playful communication relieves fatigue and relaxes your body, which allows you to recharge and accomplish more.

·         Become more creative When you loosen up, you free yourself of rigid ways of thinking and being, allowing you to get creative and see things in new ways.

It’s never too late to develop and embrace your playful, humorous side

1.       Try setting aside regular, quality playtime. The more you joke, play and laugh the easier it becomes.

2.       Find enjoyable activities that loosen you up and help you embrace your playful nature.

3.       Practice by playing with animals, babies, young children and outgoing people who appreciate playful banter.

SKILL 5 RESOLVE CONFLICT POSITIVELY

• Conflict and disagreements are inevitable in relationships.
•  The ability to manage conflicts in a positive, trust building way is the fifth key skill of emotional intelligence.
• Successfully resolving differences is supported by the previous four skills of emotional intelligence.
• Once you know how to manage stress, stay emotionally present and aware, communicate non-verbally and use humour and play, you’ll be better equipped to handle emotionally charged situations and catch and defuse many issues before they escalate.

TIPS FOR RESOLVING CONFLICT IN A TRUST-BUILDING WAY

·         Stay focused in the present When you are not holding on to old hurts and resentments, you can recognise the reality of a current situation and view it as a new opportunity for resolving old feelings about conflicts.

·         Choose your arguments Arguments take time and energy, especially if you want to resolve them in a positive way. Consider what is worth arguing about and what is not.

·         Forgive Other peoples hurtful behaviour is in the past To resolve conflict, you need to give up the urge to punish or seek revenge. End conflicts that can’t be resolved- It takes two people to keep an argument going. You can choose to disengage from a conflict, even if you still disagree.

EMOTIONS FOR GUIDANCE

Without the intelligent guidance of emotions

• Human beings cannot respond to situations very flexibly.
• Take advantage of the right time and right place.
• Make sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages.
• Recognise the importance of different elements of a situation, find similarities between situations despite differences that may separate them.
• Draw distinctions between situations despite similarities that may link them.
• Synthesise new concepts by taking old concepts and combining in new ways or develop ideas that are novel.
• Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be intel1igen Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be rational.
• Emotionally intelligent people know how to keep disruptive emotions in check. Emotionally intelligent people sense the effect their emotions have on others.
• Emotionally intelligent people can laugh at themselves. Emotionally intelligence people know how to deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses.
• Emotionally intelligent people listen to other people’s emotions and can empathise with them.
• Emotionally intelligent people act ethically and build trust through integrity and reliability.
• Emotionally intelligent people admit their own mistakes and learn from them.
• Emotionally intelligent people are comfortable with new ideas and new information.
• Emotionally intelligent people are skilled at listening to a group’s emotional currents and discerning the power relationships.
• Emotionally intelligent people can negotiate and resolve disagreements.
• Emotionally intelligent people listen to other people and know how to communicate effectively.

Criticism of Emotional Intelligence:

1. Cannot be recognized as form of intelligence

• Goleman’s early work has been criticized for assuming from the beginning that EI is a type of intelligence.
• The essence of this criticism is that scientific inquiry depends on valid and consistent construct utilization, and that before the introduction of the term EI, psychologists had established theoretical distinctions between factors such as abilities and achievements, skills and habits, attitudes and values, and personality traits and emotional states.
• Thus, some scholars believe that the term EI merges and conflates such accepted concepts and definitions.
• Goleman tries to make us believe he is presenting something new, when in fact much of what he is reporting has been studied for years under personality research.

2. Confusing Skills with Moral Qualities

• The common but mistaken perception of EI is that it is a desirable moral quality rather than a skill.
• A well-developed EI is not only an instrumental tool for accomplishing goals, but has a dark side as a weapon for manipulating others by robbing them of their capacity to reason.

3. EI has little predictive value

• Goleman made unsupported claims about the power and predictive ability of emotional intelligence.
• The studies conducted on EI have shown that it adds little or nothing to the explanation or prediction of some common outcomes (like work success).
• Similarly, many researchers have raised concerns about the extent to which self-report EI measures correlate with established personality dimensions.

4. Other Criticisms:

• Goleman represents his work as “scientific” when it does not hold up to scientific scrutiny. Unlike IQ, emotional intelligence has no as definite objective test.
• ( IQ, or intelligence quotient, is score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess an individual’s intelligence.)
• He implies that anyone can learn emotional intelligence and fails to acknowledge either the relatively fixed nature of the personality traits he includes in his definition of EI or the differences in innate potential among individuals.
• His personal beliefs about what is “appropriate” contradict the academic theory concerning the value of our emotions. He still seems to regard emotions as largely something to be controlled and restrained, rather than something to be valued.

Benefits of Higher Emotional Intelligence

·         People with higher emotional intelligence find it easier to form and maintain interpersonal relationships and to ‘fit in’ to group situations.

·         People with higher emotional intelligence are also better at understanding their own psychological state, which can include managing stress effectively and being less likely to suffer from depression.

·         EI is the ability to recognize your and other people’s emotions; and manage them in better manner.

·         Helps you control your own negative emotions. Then you can focus more on work than on mood, your productivity/efficiency/quality of work improves. As Lord Buddha said “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else: you are the one who gets burned.”

·         Helps you make better decisions, perform under stress and against heavy-odds.

·         Helps you deal with uncertainty and change in personal and professional life. Otherwise “He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”

·         Helps you manage relations. You can later leverage those relations to get things done, to reach the places where you want to reach, to get the success you want to get.

·         You can motivate teammates and extract more work out of them.

·         You can manage unreasonable people in most situations.

·         You can bounce back from setbacks and defeats.

·         You’re least affected by office-politics.

·         Because of above things, your stress is controlled and you’ve less chances of lifestyle diseases such diabetes and heart attack. You have less chances of become depressed or anxious.

·         EI helps developing Empathy towards others.

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.

Basic concepts

BASIC CONCEPTS

• Emotions play an important role in attitude formation as well as attitude change.
•  Manipulating the emotional part is an important technique of persuasion.
•  Our ethical behaviour also sees a vast decline especially in the negative mood states like anger, rage, irritation etc.
• Many times a person abuse in a state of anger even when he knows that such behaviour is unethical.
• Thus, it is important to understand the basic concept of emotion in the first place
•  We all have different personalities, different wants and needs and different ways of showing our emotions.
• Navigating through this all takes tact and cleverness - especially if we hope to succeed in life. This is where emotional intelligence becomes important.  
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they are telling you and realise how your emotions affect people around you.
•  Emotional intelligence also involves your perception of others: when you understand how they feel, this allows you to manage relationships more effectively. People with high emotional intelligence are usually successful in most things they do. Why?
• Because they are the ones that others want in their team. When people with high emotional intelligence send an email, it gets answered. When they need help, they get it. Because they make others feel good, they go through life much more easily than people who are easily angered or upset.

EMOTIONS

• Emotions seem to rule our daily lives. We make decisions based on whether we are happy, angry, sad, bored or frustrated.
•  We choose activities and hobbies based on the emotions they incite. So, what exactly is an emotion?

• Emotions can be referred to as feelings and distinctive thoughts, psychological and biological states, and range of propensities to act.
•  There are hundreds of emotions, along with their blends, variations, mutations and nuances. Indeed, there are many more subtleties of emotion than we have words for.
• Researches classify emotions as electromagnetic spectrum which consists of anger, sadness, fear, shame, disgust, surprise, lone and enjoyment, roughly in this order. These primary emotions blend with time and space to give rise to the new blended emotions.
• Anger: fury, outrage, resentment, wrath, exasperation, indignation, vexation, acrimony, animosity, annoyance, irritability, hostility and, perhaps at the extreme, pathological hatred and violence.
• Sadness: grief, sorrow, cheerlessness, gloom, melancholy, self-pity loneliness, dejection, despair and, when pathological, severe depression.
• Fear: anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, concern, consternation, misgiving, wariness, qualm, edginess, dread, fright, terror; as a psychopathology, phobia and panic.
• Enjoyment: happiness, joy, relief, contentment. bliss, delight, amusement, pride, sensual pleasure, thrill, rapture, gratification, satisfaction, euphoria, whimsy, ecstasy, and at the far edge, mania.
• Love: acceptance, friendliness, trust, kindness, affinity, devotion, adoration, infatuation, agape.
• Surprise: shock, astonishment, amazement, wonder.
• Disgust: contempt, disdain, scorn, abhorrence, aversion, distaste, revulsion.
• Shame: guilt, embarrassment, chagrin, remorse, humiliation, regret, mortification, and contrition.

·         Emotions per se are not harmful. It is only when they become extreme it becomes a problem

·         The power of emotions has been recognised since time immemorial.

·          That is why, societies have resorted to religious and ethical codes to subdue and harness emotions. Whether it is

·          the code of Hammurabi,

·         the Ten Commandments of the Hebrews,

·          the Manu Smriti and

·         the Vedas of the Hindus,

·         the edicts of Ashoka, and

·         all such other scriptures—

·         All these contain rules that need to be imposed on human beings from within to rein in the tumult of emotions within.

·          It is contended that unchecked emotions can create havoc not just for the individuals but for the social fabric at large. Hence it is morally imperative to curb them.

·         Scientific advancements of the present century, especially in the field of functioning of brain, have clarified the role and mechanism of emotions.

·          Studies have made it clearer as to how human brain operates while we think and feel, imagine and dream. This has enabled better understanding of emotions and emotional intelligence.

·          It may be stated that human beings have two minds—rational and emotional. This is akin to the popular distinction between the head and the heart.

·         Ordinarily, there is a balance between emotional and rational mind. Emotions are fed into the operating system of the rational mind; the rational mind refines and sometimes, negates the inputs of the emotions to process information.

·          But when passions increase, there is imbalance and the emotional mind dominates

·         The very structure of our brain is such that emotional areas are intertwined with all parts of the thinking areas, thus, giving them immense authority to influence the rest of the brain

·         It is at this juncture that an individual sometimes makes decisions or acts in a manner which might be later regretted, so knowing about the brain and emotional areas is important.

·         To be emotionally intelligent is to have the personal skills that characterise a rich and balanced personality.

Intelligence and Emotional intelligence

·         According to Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer-prize winning author of the brilliant book Godel, Escher, Bach, intelligence can be defined in terms of the following eight abilities:

1. To respond to situations very flexibly.

2. To take advantage of the right time and right place.

3. To make sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages.

4. To recognize the importance of different elements of a situation.

5. To find similarities between situations despite differences that may separate them.

6. To draw distinctions between situations despite similarities that may link them.

7. To synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and combining them in new ways.

8. To develop ideas that are novel.

·         Without the intelligent guidance of emotions, human beings cannot respond to situations very flexibly, take advantage of the right time and right place, make sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages, recognize the importance of different elements of a situation, find similarities between situations despite differences that may separate them, draw distinctions between situations despite similarities that may link them, synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and combining in new ways, or develop ideas that are novel.

·         Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be intelligent. Without the guidance of emotions we cannot be rational.

In the next section we will study various varieties of intelligence present in our brain.

Varieties of Intelligence

• Howard Gardner one of the most acclaimed psychologist, questioned the traditional method of evaluating intelligence
• He was against the concept of understanding intelligence only from limited perspective.
•  For him emotional aspect of a personality was considered to be an important aspect of intelligence.
• He identified seven varieties of intelligence including the traditionally conceived intelligence. They are given below in Table.

Let us understand Howard Gardner’s theories.

1.       Naturalist Intelligence

• This designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). This ability was predominantly found in hunters and gatherers. Much of our consumer society also exploits the naturalist intelligences.

2.       Musical Intelligence

• Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre and tone. This intelligence enables us to recognise, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist and sensitive listeners.

3.       Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

• Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations. It enables us to perceive relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and deductive thinking patterns. Logical intelligence is usually well developed in mathematicians scientists and detectives. Children with high logical thinking levels are drawn more towards arithmetic problems strategy games and experiments.

4.       Existential Intelligence

• Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.

5.       Interpersonal Intelligence

• Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives. Teachers, social workers, actors, politicians, etc., all exhibit these traits.

6.       Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence

• Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills. This intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection of skills through mind-body union. Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibn well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

7.       Linguistic Intelligence

• Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings. Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language.

8.       Intrapersonal Intelligence

• Intrapersonal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings. This is used to plan one’s life. Intrapersonal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of the self, but also of the human condition.

9.       Spatial Intelligence

• Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include mental imagery spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills, and an active imagination.

Definition of emotion

• Hockenbury and Hockenbury‘-An emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response and a behavioural or expressive response.’

• The Oxrford English Dictionary defines emotion as “any agitation or disturbance of mind, feeling passion, any vehement or excited mental state”

Let’s focus on the three key elements of emotions mentioned in above definition

1.       THE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE

• While experts believe that there are a number of basic universal emotions that are experienced by the people all over the world regardless of background or culture, researchers also believe that the experience of emotion can be highly subjective.
• While we might have broad labels for certain emotions such as ‘angry, ‘sad or ‘happy,’ your own unique experience of these emotions is probably much more multi-dimensional.
• Consider anger. Is all anger the same? Your own experience might range from mild annoyance to blinding rage.
• We don’t always experience pure forms of each emotion. Mixed emotions over different events or situations in our lives are common. When faced with starting a new job, you might feel both excited and nervous.
• Getting married or having a child might be marked by a wide variety of emotions ranging from joy to anxiety. These emotions might occur simultaneously or you might feel them one after another.

Oscar Wilde -‘I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them.’ Aristotle- Anybody can become angry i.e., easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, in the right way - that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

2.       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE

• If you have ever felt your stomach lurch from anxiety or your heart palpate with fear, then you realise that emotions also cause strong physiological reactions.
• Many of the physical reactions you experience during an emotion such as sweating palms, racing heartbeat or rapid breathing are controlled by the Sympathetic Nervous System, a branch of the Autonomic Nervous System.
•  The Autonomic Nervous System controls involuntary body responses such as blood flow and digestion.
• The Sympathetic Nervous System is charged with controlling the body’s fight-or-flight reactions.
• When facing a threat, these responses automatically prepare your body to flee from danger or face the threat head-on.

3.       THE BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE

• The final component is perhaps one that you are most familiar with - the actual expression of emotion.
• We spend a significant amount of time interpreting the emotional expressions of the people around us.
• Our ability to accurately understand these expressions is tied to what psychologists call emotional intelligence and these expressions play a major part in our overall body language.
• Researchers believe that many expressions are universal, such as a smile indicating happiness or pleasure or a frown indicating sadness or displeasure.
•  Cultural rules also play an important role in how we express and interpret emotions. In Japan, e.g., people tend to mask displays of fear or disgust when in the presence of authority figure.

SIMILAR CONSTRUCTS

Emotion can be differentiated from a number of similar constructs such as

·         Feelings are best understood as a subjective representation of emotions, private to the individual experiencing them.

·         Moods An emotion is normally quite short-lived, but intense. e.g., after disagreeing with a friend over politics, you might feel angry for a short period of time. A mood on the ether hand is usually much milder than an emotion, but longer-lasting. In many cases, it can be difficult to identify the specific cause of a mood. e.g., you might find yourself feeling gloomy for several days without any clearly identifiable reason.

·         Affect is an encompassing term, used to describe the topics of emotion; feelings and moods together, even though it is commonly used interchangeably with emotion.

TYPES OF EMOTIONS

• In 1972, psychologist Paul Ekman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures.

1. Fear                                  2. Disgust              

3. Anger                               4. Surprise

5. Happiness                       6. Sadness

• In 1999, he expanded this list to include a number of other basic emotions including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride satisfaction and amusement.

Wheel of emotions- Robert Plutchik

• During the 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced another emotion classification system known as the wheel of emotions.
• This model demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together, much the way an artist mixes primary colours to create other colours.
• Plutchik suggested that there are eight primary emotional dimensions.

1. Happiness vs. Sadness 2. Anger vs. Fear

3. Trust vs. Disgust               4. Surprise vs. Anticipation

• These emotions can then be combined in a variety of ways. e.g., happiness and anticipation might combine to create excitement.

THE PURPOSE OF EMOTIONS

• Emotions can play an important role in how we think and behave.
•  Our emotions can be short-lived, such as a flash of annoyance at a co-worker or long-lasting, such as enduring sadness over the loss of a relationship.
•  But why exactly do we experience emotions? What role do they serve?

The answer to these questions is

1.       EMOTIONS CAN MOTIVATE US TO TAKE ACTION

• When faced with a nerve-wrecking exam, you might feel a lot of anxiety about whether you will perform well and how the test will impact your final grade.
• Because of these emotional responses, you might be more likely to study.
• Since you experienced a particular emotion, you had the motivation to take action and do something positive to improve your chances of getting a good grade.
• We also tend to take certain actions in order to experience positive, emotions and minimise the probability of feeling negative emotions.
• E.g. you might seek out social activities or hobbies that provide you with a sense of happiness, contentment and excitement.
•  On the other hand, you would probably avoid situations that might potentially lead to boredom, sadness or anxiety.

2.       EMOTIONS HELP US TO SURVIVE, THRIVE AND AVOID DANGER

·         Naturalist Charles Darwin believed that emotions are adaptations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce.

·         When we are angry, we are likely to confront the source of our irritation.

·         When we experience fear, we are more likely to flee the situation or threat.

·          When we feel love, we might seek out a mate and reproduce.

·         Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act quickly and take actions that will maximise our chances for success.

3.       EMOTIONS CAN HELP US TO MAKE DECISIONS

·         Our emotions have a major influence on the decisions we make, from what we decide to have for breakfast, to which candidates we choose to vote for in political elections.

·         Researchers have also found that people with certain types of brain damage that impairs their ability to experience emotions also have decreased ability to make good decisions.

·         Even in situations where we believe our decisions are guided purely by logic and rationality, emotions play a key role.

·         Emotional intelligence or our ability to understand and manage emotions, has been shown to play an important role in decision-making.

4.       EMOTIONS ALLOW OTHER PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND US

·         When we interact with other people, it is important to give clues to help them understand how we are feeling.

·         These clues might involve emotional expression through body language, such as various facial expressions connected with the particular emotions we are experiencing.

·         In other cases, it might involve directly stating how we are feeling.

·         When we tell friends or family members that we are feeling happy, sad, excited or frightened, we are giving them important information that they can then use to take action.

5.       EMOTIONS ALLOW US TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS

·         Just as our own emotions provide valuable information to others, the emotional expressions of those around us gives us a wealth of social information.

·          Social communication is an important part of our daily lives and relationships and being able to interpret and react to the emotions of others is essential.

·         It allows us to respond appropriately and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with our friends, family and loved ones.

·          It also allows us to communicate effectively in a variety of social situations, from dealing with an irate customer to managing a hot-headed employee.

Quotations

·         “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” —Epictetus

·         “Confidence on the outside begins by living with integrity on the inside.” —Brian Tracy

·         “You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” —Dale Carnegie

·         “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.” —Epictetus

·         “Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.” —Norman Vincent Peale

·         “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” —Paul Boese

·         “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else: you are the one who gets burned.” —Buddha

·         “There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” —Ghandi

·         “He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.” —Japanese proverb

·         “Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.” —Joshua L. Liebman

·         “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident. Riches take wing. Only one thing endures. And that is character.” —Horace Greeley

·         “As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery... we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.” —Dalai Lama quote

·         “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” —Khalil Gibran

·         “Worrying is like being in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but does not get you anywhere.”

·         “He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.” —Quevedo

·         “Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand... prejudice, fear and ignorance walk hand-in-hand.” —Peart

·         “Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.” —Chinese proverb

·         “Every time we allow someone to move us with anger, we teach them to be angry.” —Barry Neil Kaufman

·         “Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.”

·         “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

·         “Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.” —Benjamin Franklin

Utilities and Application of Emotional Intelligence in Administration and Governance

• Emotional Intelligence (EI) can be a valuable tool a administrator and managers in government or any company. Since research on Emotional Intelligence began, results overwhelmingly show that people high in various combinations of emotional competencies outperform people who are weak in those areas. When emotional competencies are used in leader selection, for example, performance and retention rates increase significantly.
• The research shows that the most successful people, those who consistently outperform their peers, exhibit more of the skills and traits known as Emotional Intelligence.

Developing Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

• Leadership is a process of social interaction where the leader’s ability to influence the behaviour of their followers can strongly influence performance outcomes.
•  Leadership is intrinsically an emotional process, whereby leaders recognize followers’ emotional states, attempt to evoke emotions in followers, and then seek to manage followers’ emotional states accordingly.
• Leaders increase group solidarity and morale by creating shared emotional experiences. The ability of leaders to influence the emotional climate can strongly influence performance.
•  EI is a key factor in an individual’s ability to be socially effective and is viewed in leadership as a key determinant of effective leadership.
• Emotionally intelligent leaders can promote effectiveness at all levels in organizations. The EI of the leader plays an important role in the quality and effectiveness of social interactions with other individuals.
• A big part of being a leader involves being credible, or honest and trustworthy.
• Being credible helps us to earn respect from others. People also listen to someone who they feel has their best interests at heart.
• In emotional-intelligence terms, one earns this trust by using empathy.
• If a person is empathic, one is more likely to gain the cooperation of others because they show concern about others welfare.
•  If someone acts in a self-serving or callous manner, people are more likely to avoid the person. As part of the strategy for getting people to follow, one should try working towards winning over them.
• Self-regard: having high self-regard means that one has a good understanding of his strengths and weakness. Acting on this understanding requires that you have good self-knowledge and effectively strike a balance between being confident and being arrogant. People are more comfortable helping others who demonstrate the right amount of humility.
• Optimism: People find optimism and happiness attractive attributes. People are more likely to cooperate with someone who’s optimistic.
• Happiness: Happiness, like optimism, attracts people. When we’re happy others are more pleasant to be around. Being happy add to “likability” factor.
• It can also be contagious. Everybody likes to be happy, and being around happy people contributes to one’s own happiness.

Role of Emotional Intelligence in Administration

Emotionally Intelligent Administrator

• Emotionally intelligent leaders are centered and grounded.
•  The people around them see them as having a stable mood, even when things get tough.
•  Such leaders aren’t erratic or extremely unpredictable in their behaviour, and they tend to possess these traits:

• Have high self-regard: The good leaders have high self-regard. Leaders who claim to know it all tend to be poor leaders. Good leaders know their strengths and capitalize on those strengths, as well as know their weaknesses and fill the gaps with people who have strong skills in these areas.
• Maintain balance in life: Good leaders also seem to how to balance their personal and work lives. They tend to avoid burning out by managing their time well. Traditionally, most leaders and aspiring leaders believed that in order to be a successful leader, one needed to be workaholic. However, if a person can manage his own life well – including stress, home like fitness, and diet – then he has a better chance of managing the workplace well.
• Model the way: Successful leaders say what they want to accomplish and get it done. The leader needs to walk the talk if he wants others to follow. It emotional intelligence terms this practice involves assertiveness and independence. People who are assertive have no difficulty expressing their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Also, people who are independent listener and take the advice of others, but in the end, make their own informed decisions. Independence implies taking action in order to carry things out.
• Inspire a shared vision: As a leader, one must convince others that he/she understands others needs and have their best interests at heart. Inspiring a shared vision requires a good deal of empathy and optimism. Our optimism gives our vision a positive and desirable flavour so that others want to share in it. Our empathy ensures that we hit the right chord in terms of what others want to see and hear from us.
• Challenge the process:  An emotionally intelligent leader Strive for change. Look for opportunities to improve and grow. Also, experiment and take risks. One of the key emotional intelligence skills that are needed in order to challenge the status quo is flexibility. Flexible people are more likely to try new things, take risks, and face new challenges without fear.
• Enable others to act: Success requires a team and because leaders, by definition, require followers. Leaders can empower others in a variety of ways. He enables others by fostering collaboration and building trust. Successful leaders share power, delegate well, and do what’s necessary to help others to perform. In terms of emotional intelligence, there is a need of good self-regard and interpersonal skills to enable others to act. In order to build successful relationships, you need the skills to engage and relate to others in a meaningful way.
• Stay composed (calm) under pressure: Good leaders don’t flare up or lose control under difficult circumstances.
• Encourage the heart: The relationship of this practice to emotional Intelligence is the most evident. A key component of this practice involves recognizing the contributions of others. Rewarding people for their participation goes a long way in motivating them to be part of our team. Leaders who encourage others not only need to know how those people feel but need to be capable of building relationships with them, as well. Socially responsible behaviours embody this ability to care about and contribute to others.

Emotional Intelligence and Team Building:

• Emotional Intelligence has a significant impact on team member relationships and their effectiveness in reaching a team’s goals.
• Understanding our own EI strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of other team members, provides a means for improving the interpersonal dynamics of teamwork.

EI training can help team members learn how:

1.      Individual EI fits with the EI of other team members, managers, clients, etc.

2.      work assignments can be made and accomplished more effectively

3.      to improve communication

4.      to minimize the negative aspects of conflict

5.      to present information most effectively

6.      to design more effective problem solving groups

7.      to assist team members in maximizing their individual and collective strengths

Emotional Intelligence and Conflict:

• Emotional Intelligence significantly influences how we go about solving interpersonal problems.
• Thus, conflict in organizations often stems from EI differences. Understanding how to use our EI more effectively helps us solve interpersonal problems more effectively and efficiently and increases the overall effectiveness of work teams.
• When people understand the basics of how they are different from each other and their strengths and weaknesses, they can take steps to reduce conflict and become more accepting.
• EI training can help to manage conflict which might include:

1.      Overcoming EI Differences

2.      Problem solving

3.      Emotional Dynamics

4.      Working Together

Emotional Intelligence and profession:

• There is a relationship between EI  and the outcome in the job performance in workplace. 
• Profession such as cabin crew, hospitality staff as well as jobs related to the customer service officers is the kinds of task that need high emotional level.
•  In this situation, the employees are expected to have positive emotion and has the ability to hide the negative emotions

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace:

• EI has found to be beneficial in daily life as well as in workplace environment. Nevertheless, the appliance of EI has been most often documented in the workplace situation.
• There are four significant reasons why the environment of the workplace is the best applied setting for assessing and improving EI competencies

1.      EI competencies are crucial for success in doing work task

2.      Most of the leaders enter the workplace lacking in competencies needed to succeed in doing work task

3.      Employers already have the standard means in order to provide EI training

4.      Most people spend their time in workplace

• Emotional intelligence at work is about how people and relationships function:

·          (a) Relationships between colleagues, between directors and staff;

·          (b) Relationships between the organisation and its customers, stakeholders, suppliers, competitors, networking contacts, … everyone.

• Founded on excellent practice and understanding of communication, the emotionally intelligent business consistently excels in all these areas and has insight into how this happens.
• An organisation which is emotionally intelligent has staff who are:

·          (a) motivated, productive, efficient, aligned with the business, and committed;

·         (b) effective, confident, likable, happy, and rewarded.

• Emotional intelligence is applicable to every human interaction in business: from staff motivation to customer service, from brainstorming to company presentations. But the subject is far deeper and wider than these examples, and emotional intelligence must be able to understand and deal with:

1.      how we assess people

2.      how relationships develop

3.      how our beliefs generate our experience

4.      As well as resistance, power struggles, judgement, competition, vision, leadership, success, and much more.

• Only in a business in which the staff are emotionally intelligent can they work together to maximum effectiveness. This can only increase the organization’s success, however measured. Emotional intelligence is essential for excellence.
• In terms of economic point of view, research has revealed that the cost-effectiveness of emotional intelligence especially in the workplace has found to be an interests topic among organisations.
• It is to be found out that hiring process of employees when taken into consideration of emotional intelligence aspect can help organisations to be economic in their management.

Benefits of using EI in Selection

1.      Hire the best fit candidate the first time

2.      Put the right person into the right job

3.      Reduce costly mis-hires

4.      Create targeted developmental plans based on the results

5.      Reduce the expense of screening and training candidates who don’t stay with the organization

6.      Improve employee satisfaction with the right job fit that plays to their strengths

In conclusion we can say that Emotional intelligence influences organizational effectiveness in a number of areas:

1.      To identify and recruit top talent and retaining them

2.      To identify potential leaders in its ranks and prepare them to move up.

3.      To make better use of the special talents available in a diverse workforce.

4.      Development of talent

5.      Helping people to be motivated, committed, creative, innovative and to to cope with massive, rapid change.

6.      Teamwork

7.      Employee commitment, morale, and health

8.      Innovation

9.      Productivity

10.  Efficiency

11.  Sales

12.  Revenues

13.  Quality of service

14.  Customer loyalty

15.  Client or student outcomes

16.  Making good decisions about new markets, products, and strategic alliance

Questions

1. A mind that leaves emotions out, is impoverished. Elaborate
2. Emotional intelligence has interesting ideas but lacks practical utility. Do you agree? Justify your stand.
3. “Emotional intelligence is not an opposite of the intelligence but a unique intersection of head and heart.” Elaborate
4. “Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.” – Benjamin Franklin. Discuss with example from life of a famous person.
5. All learning has an emotional base.” – Plato. Elaborate
6. “Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution. (Kahlil Gibran)”. Do you agree? Justify your stand

Emotions in Weber’s bureaucracy Vs in modern neuroscience

·         Weber’s bureaucracy prescribed complete impersonality and absence of emotions for rational administration. But Neuroscientific studies in last decade has shown that rationality and emotions are not separate compartments in the brain rather they are extrinsically interwoven. Charles Darwin in 19th century showed that emotions are adaptive in the evolution of human beings.Joseph Ledoux has said “Many emotions are product of evolutionary wisdom, which probably has more intelligence that human minds together.”

·          Researchers have shown conclusively that emotions are a form of intelligent awareness. Emotions are what make us human. Emotions tell us what is valuable and important to us and to others. They signal the meaning of events.

·          They serve as essential guide for humans to make rational choices. Without guidance of emotions, one become irrational, detached from reality.

·         Is not this detachment from reality the very definition of “occupational psychosis” (John Dewey), “professional deformation”(Thorsein Veblen), “trained incapacity” (Philip Selznick), and “bureaupathology” (Robert Merton)?

·         We now have conclusive biological evidence that decision-making is neurologically impossible without being informed by emotions.

·         Contrary to the classical model, decision-making is arbitrary when it is not infused with the intelligence of emotions.

Bureaucracy on emotions	Modern neuroscience on emotions
·         Make us inefficient	·         Make us effective
·         Sign of weakness	·         Sign of strength
·         Interfere with good judgement	·         Essential to good judgement
·         Distract us	·         Motivates us
·         Obstruct, or slow down, reasoning	·         Enhance, or speed up, reasoning
·         Arbitrary and tyrannical	·         Build trust and connection
·         Weaken neutrality	·         Activate ethical values
·         Inhibit the flow of objective data	·         Provide vital information and feedback
·         Complicate planning	·         Spark creativity and innovation
·         Undermine management	·         Enhance leadership

Courtesy – Robert Kramer in Beyond Max Weber: Emotional Intelligence and Public Leadership