Enclosure 1
This enclosure all builds on Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence at work (Goleman,
1998)
The competences can be divided, into inter and intrapersonal. The interpersonal competences
are the ones related to the how a person is able to deal with own emotions. The intrapersonal
are the competences are our abilities to interact with other people.
Interpersonal competences:
Self awareness
Goleman defines self awareness as “recognizing a feeling as it happens”. Our ability to do
this is a crucial part of emotional intelligence. According to Mayer a high level of self
awareness is likely to undergird other parts of an individual’s characteristics. People with
high self awareness are more likely to be optimistic, are better able to get out of a bad mood,
and they know their own boundaries.
Emotional awareness
People with a high emotional awareness are aware how they are affected by their emotions.
They are able to recognize how emotions affect the way we behave as human beings.
According to Goleman this leads to another form of awareness. He argues that people that are
aware of their own emotions will also be aware of how their emotions affect the people they
interact with. Further more emotional aware individuals will also be aware of how these
feelings feel physically, as well as being able to articulate how they fell and do so in a
socially acceptable manner.
Accurate self-assessment
When it comes to self assessment it is crucial that people are aware of their own limits in
their ability. Several studies have shown that star performers are ware of their own strengths
and weaknesses. One of the reasons that people that are self-aware perform better is because
they are able to constantly improve their weak spots.
i
Self control
People with a high level of self-control are able to manage their impulses, this enables them
to put of pleasure and focus on a task at hand. Self controlled people are also able to manage
feelings of distress and anger in positive way.
Trustworthiness
People with a high degree of emotional intelligence are good at letting people know their
intentions, values, feelings and principles. Not only are they able to this, they also act
accordingly and this translates into trustworthiness. This is an important quality because
trustworthy individuals naturally gain the trust of other which is of great importance when
building relationship especially ones of long term.
Conscientiousness
Conscientious people are usually very organized in the way they carry out their work and are
able to keep what they promise. Furthermore they are also good at keeping themselves
accountable for meeting their own commitments.
Adaptability
The adaptable individual is able to deal with ambiguity in a confident manner. This will also
allow these individuals to remain calm in the face of change.
Innovation
ii
The innovative individuals are able to find new and original ideas and takes pleasure in doing
so. Perhaps more importantly they are able to execute their ideas, which is essential because
an idea that can not be executed is worth very little.
Achievement drive
The need to achieve is one of the single most important indicators of how well we perform. It
is what pushes us to achieve and improve our results. They are motivated to finding ways in
which they can improve them selves all the time. In order to improve them selves people with
a strong drive to achieve constantly try to gain new information and ideas that can help them
to improve their performance.
Commitment
People that are committed do not act selfish. They try to obtain their own goals but are
committed to also trying to reach the goals of their organization. This means that they
sometimes will have to make short run sacrifices in order to obtain a greater good in the long
run. Such commitment is much more likely to occur if the individual person feels they have
an emotional attachment to the organization.
Initiative
Many of us have to be pushed or least encouraged to act, there as people with high level of
initiative are able to do so without being forced to act. They are therefore able to act before it
is absolutely necessary and thereby grab opportunities that people that do not have the
initiative will miss.
Optimism
Some people sees themselves as being master of their own destiny with a high internal locus
of control, where as other feels that external circumstances control their fate and there is little
iii
they can do change it. The people that have a large internal locus of control tend to be more
optimistic than those who do not. They believe that by persistence and hard work they will
able to succeed. This makes optimistic people better at dealing with setbacks than pessimistic
people. The pessimist sees the setback as having occurred due to some fault in them selves or
the environment around them that they are unable to change, whereas the optimist view the
setback as having occurred due to factors that they are able to change and therefore persist in
trying to reach their goal.
Intrapersonal competences:
Empathy
In the previous part concerning internal competences the importance of self-awareness was
explained. Likewise it is important to have an awareness of other people’s feeling when it
comes to intrapersonal competences. Goleman states “sensing what other feel without their
saying so captures the essence of empathy.” The people with the highest levels of empathy
will not only be able to sense what other people are feeling but they also have understanding
of the underlying reasons for these feelings. Further more empathetic people actually care
about other people and actively act on this empathic feeling by taking care of people what
need it.
Influence
To gain influence you must be capable of handling emotions in others. People whom master
this art have the ability to anticipate how people will react to their behavior and can use this
to direct people towards their goal. (169) This is strongly related to the understanding of other
people as this will allow people to adjust their behavior according to the situation and build
rapport with most people. Goleman states “the first step in influence is gaining rapport”. High
EI individuals therefore spend time to build a bond which others may have neglected. These
individuals are able to gain influences through indirect strategies and therefore doing almost
unnoticed by others. If it is discovered that strategies are employed it may very well be
perceived as manipulative behavior and may backfire.
iv
Communication
Good communicators use many concrete skills related to emotional intelligence when they
communicate. They are open towards messages from other people letting everybody be
heard. This is strongly connected to having good listening skills. Another vital competence
required to be a good communicator is being in control of emotions. People that are able to
stay calm and composed in heated situations will not let their emotions control them but be in
control of how they communicate even under extreme pressure.
Conflict management
People that are skilled at conflict management have the ability to identify a potentially
troubling situation and are able to calm down the people involved. In doing so they are able
to create a situation where an open discussion takes place calmly. This creates the possibility
for resolving the conflict in a positive manner with the possibility of creating a win-win
situation.
Building bonds
Psychological proximity is more important than physical proximity then it comes to bonding
with people. It is therefore crucial to build rapport with people in order to build a network.
v