MODUL 1 Introduction to the Course - Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this module, you will be able to o Identify what emotional intelligence is and what it is not o Explain what emotional intelligence is and why it is important o Explain the difference between EQ and IQ o Describe how emotional intelligence differs from other intelligences o Recognise how and why emotions are important o List some emotional intelligence competencies that can be developed o Identify emotional intelligence competencies that you need to develop personally MODUL 1 SUMMARY What is Emotional Intelligence - Lesson Summary Emotional intelligence is a set of emotional and social skills, which together combine to establish - how good you are at understanding and expressing yourself - how you go about developing and maintaining social relationships - how you cope with day to day challenges - how these affect you over a longer period of time - how you go about using emotional information It's the way that you blend your thinking with your feelings, in order to make good innovative decisions and build authentic relationships. Emotional intelligence is not a static factor as it can be developed and improved in targeted areas, and it can change over time. Emotional Intelligence has been estimated to account for between 27 to 45 percent of job success. Emotional intelligence is completely different to cognitive intelligence (IQ). Emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are not highly correlated. Emotional intelligence is not linked to aptitude, your ability to learn a new skill or to performance. Emotional intelligence doesn't measure vocation. Emotional intelligence isn't a direct measure of personality. Emotional intelligence doesn't give any assessment of anxiety, depression or any other aspects of mental health. Emotions are like seasons. They are always in the background. We can use them to our advantage or our disadvantage and create opportunities for ourselves. We need to take emotions more seriously and look at ways that we can work with their impact upon us to make us more effective. The more senior you are within an organisation, and the more you develop yourself in your career, the more that emotional intelligence becomes important. It is more important than cognitive intelligence in determining your personal success. Daniel Goleman said "There is intelligence in emotions and intelligence can be brought to emotions." IQ is the measure of cognitive intelligence, EQ is the measure of emotional intelligence. IQ and EQ - the measure of cognitive intelligence and the measure of emotional intelligence - are not highly correlated, so that doesn't necessarily mean that if you have a high IQ you're going to have a high level of emotional intelligence - you just have more of a head start. "Anyone can become angry - that's easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way - that's not easy." Aristotle There are a range of emotions which people will experience on a day to day basis at work. The way in which you experience emotions is going to be different on a day-to-day basis, and it's going to change over time. How you experience your emotions will be different to how other people experience emotions. Studies from around the world have shown that there's little difference in people's day-to-day emotional experiences. Everyone thinks, perceives and feels things differently as well. Emotions can be combined to form different feelings - much like colours basic emotions act to something like building blocks and can be mixed to create other shades. More complex emotions are mixed emotions and they're blendings of the more basic ones. Emotional intelligence is not about catching and suppressing emotions as they begin to surface. It's about raising those issues, working with those emotions and recognising that they contain some very important information. Emotional intelligence is about doing the right thing, making the right decisions and doing these in the right way. Emotional intelligence is about bringing emotions to the surface and using them in a way that can drive situations forward. How you think about a situation will impact upon how you feel, and vice versa. Neuroscience shows that mind and body are deeply intertwined so that when you do new things you rewire your brain and deepen your memory. Emotional management involves emotional awareness - reading emotions and understanding emotions - and capabilities around choice. - making choices around emotions. If emotional level is low and emotional management is low, people will find the climate demotivating, disengaging and apathetic. If emotional level is high but emotional management is low, people will be impulsive, coercive and disruptive. If emotional level is low but emotional management is high, people will be organising, productive and considered. Where emotional level is high and emotional management is high, people will be working in an engaging way. It'll be inspiring and energising. Feedback is information that can be used as a basis for improvement. Some feedback is good, some feedback is bad, some feedback is helpful. - Compliments are positive but they don't tell us how to improve. - Criticism is negative but it doesn't tell us how to improve. Feedback can be positive and it can be negative, but it helps us to improve and sometimes it's called "constructive criticism". Constructive criticism builds up - it doesn't knock down. Working with feedback and giving feedback - check your motives - ask before you tell somebody what your thoughts are - build on the positives - be honest about the negatives - be specific. "Perhaps you could do it this way?" Feedback - can be delivered aggressively, too fast or too hard - can be competitive - has to be dealt with immediately When receiving feedback, listen! It can be used as ways to improve and do things better. Anyone can take a dislike to something and be critical. That's easy! It's an emotional response. But to be helpful, you need to explain why you disliked it and what you would like to see to make it better. There are some advantages in working with and using emotional intelligence. - Emotional intelligence helps to improve relationships. - Emotional intelligence helps to maintain control, lowers stress levels and maintains motivation. -Emotional intelligence enables good communication and an ability to work with, and influence, and persuade others. - Good levels of emotional intelligence enhances your reputation inside and outside of work. There are some disadvantages to emotional intelligence. - Emotional intelligence can't always be learned. - Emotional intelligence is sometimes dismissed as just another management fad. - Emotional intelligence is not relevant in every job role. The advantages and disadvantages of emotional intelligence show that it can be hugely beneficial to develop. Module 3: Emotions On successful completion of this module, you will be able to o Explain the function of emotions and how they have developed o Name and describe the hierarchy of the human brain o Describe how the three levels of the brain work o List seven basic human emotions o Explain why emotions shouldn't be labelled as positive or negative o Recognise why the expression of emotion depends upon the context o Identify ways that emotions can be used more effectively and efficiently Emotions - Lesson Summary Back in the 20th century, emotions were considered to be chaotic, haphazard, and superfluous and incompatible with cognitive thinking and reasoning. They were seen as largely visceral and disorganised and anybody expressing emotions really resulted from a lack of effective adjustment. Emotions, nowadays, are considered a lot more favourably and a lot more positively. They're known to arouse, sustain, and direct activity. We know that emotions are involved in the learning process and in accessing memory and, also, we know that emotions are involved in good decision making. They are a part of what makes us human and they're part of the total economy of all living organisms. They're not, actually, in opposition to intelligence and work very well combined with cognitive intelligence and an effective use of emotions instructs a higher order of intelligence, which we now know is emotional intelligence. Charles Darwin speculated that non-verbal expression and communication evolved in the absence of language, as a mechanism to help us survive. As an evolutionary process, emotions are found in other animals and so are innate - they're inborn. A genetic component is, therefore, likely to be involved in the way in which we experience and express emotion, but our emotions don't necessarily define our destiny, how we grow up and what we become as we grow into adults. So, a timid child doesn't necessarily grow into a timid, shy, unconfident adult. The way in which our parents use and expressed their emotions helped us to learn how we work with our emotions. Abuse in childhood has an influence on how emotions are managed and used, and hinders learning about the appropriate use of emotion. A poor ability to read the emotions of other people may lead to the development of poor social skills, with the consequence that, for these people, it becomes difficult to build long-term, lasting relationships. There's a strong biological purpose for emotion. Emotions signal nonverbally to others that they may have to take some immediate action. So, expressions of surprise, fear, anger and disgust will encourage those around us to respond in ways that are appropriate to that emotion providing a very strong impulse for them to take action. Each emotion is expressed in a unique, physiological manner in order that our bodies are prepared for the appropriate action. In other words, the emotion prepares us so that we can take flight or fight, or perhaps choose another response. Our emotion and our action provides a motivational trigger to others around us to act in similar ways. Our emotions provide us with the motivation that we need to commit events to memory, and so emotions become fundamental to the way in which we learn and to our learning. The Basic Anatomy of the Brain The human brain is an amazing tool. It's one of the organs of the body and it's the most complex instrument in the known universe. The other organs, such as the heart or the lungs, are not as sophisticated. Unlike these small simple organs that are capable of being transplanted from one person to another, the brain is so interwoven into the fabric of our bodies that we could refer to the body as being an organ of the brain, as opposed to being the other way around. An adult human's brain is about the size and weight of a melon. What makes the brain so remarkable is that it's made up of 86 billion neurons interconnected by 1.5 x 10 to the power 14 synapses. These are the junctions between two nerve cells consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter. There are 4,500 neurotransmitters. Most people have heard of two or three, such as dopamine and serotonin, but there are many, many more. This arrangement offers unlimited memory. The brain combines language and visual imagery operating by perception. It's capable of thinking about itself, which is what you're doing right now, and it's capable of working with emotions. The brain is made up of several distinct regions. Each of these regions serves two functions - physiological and psychological. Each region has a different purpose, but they all connect to give us our feelings, thoughts and actions. Biologically, each region plays a role in managing aspects of our physiology from regulating oxygen levels in the blood, to sending messages to the muscles that enable us to move. Each region possesses a distinct psychological function for the way in which it processes information. When considering the psychological function of the human brain, it's possible to divide it into the following areas. The primitive brain, or the reptilian brain, controls functions basic to survival such as heart rate, breathing, digesting food and sleeping. It's the lowest, most primitive area of the human brain and it includes the cerebellum, which is involved in coordinating movement. Although we're not consciously aware of the information processed by our lower brain, it receives information from the senses and provides us with our instincts or our gut feelings. The emotional brain describes the collective areas that make up the limbic system and this includes the amygdala. These are the brain structures that filter and process emotions and emotional responses. This region is important because it plays a lead role in governing emotions and our natural and automatic behaviours and functions. The outer cortex forms the rest of the brain. The rational brain is made up of the frontal lobes, or prefrontal cortex as this region is more precisely known. This area of the brain enables us to reason, to be rational, to be objective and to master our instincts and our emotions. The left hemisphere of the cortex is where we store the rules by which we live our lives. For example, the rules of language are stored in this area of the brain, which is why people who suffer from strokes within the left hemisphere often find speaking difficult. Being more structured and rule based, the left hemisphere processes information sequentially with each step being a consequence of the previous one. The right hemisphere of the cortex, in stark contrast, deals with pattern making. It deals with ambiguity and new learning. The right hemisphere, therefore, processes information in a more irrational style by looking at the linkages, patterns and associations with other memories and stored experiences. The brain is capable of multitasking, using both hemispheres simultaneously. It's able to process information very quickly and intuitively, and it's able to adapt to circumstances when needed. However, it's not perfect. The brain is limited to some degree. It makes mistakes without care and it's influenced by outside sources. To work effectively, the human brain consumes vast amounts of glucose -energy. It consumes about 20 percent of the body's energy so, if it doesn't have to work hard, it won't. This means that it wants to make the quickest decisions possible and will often jump to conclusions, make snap decisions and judgements without all the information available. So, belief in your brain giving you an accurate representation of reality and a deep understanding of circumstances can often get you into trouble. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Emotions and Higher Order State For years it's been thought that emotions are programmed within the limbic region of the brain. However, as we've learnt, things in the brain are not that straightforward. Research published in February 2017 by Joseph Ledoux and Richard Brown from New York University suggests that emotions are higher order states that momentarily pass through these limbic circuits. All conscious experiences arise from one system in the brain - the outer parts of the brain - the cortex. The circuits below the cortex in the limbic system, provide an unconscious import which come together with other neural signals to create conscious emotional experiences. It's been found that the general networks of thinking and awareness process emotional experiences just as they do for any other conscious experience. This suggests that self-centred high order states are essential for emotional experiences. This isn't saying that the defensive survival circuits of fear, flight or fight play no part in the conscious experience. The circuits of the limbic system are involved in modulating the experience but they're not directly responsible for it. The new hypothesis tweaks a well-known theory of consciousness called Higher-Order Theory. LeDoux and Brown conclude that emotions are higher order states embedded in cortical circuits. Can emotions ever be unconscious? The answers behind how this mechanism works will influence how we approach everything from decision making to mental health. The implications of this are quite vast and quite profound and it'll be interesting to see what further research shows. Over the last 40 years, Paul Ekman, who is an American psychologist and anthropologist, has been a pioneer in the study of nonverbal communication and emotions and, in particular, their relationship to facial expression. Through a series of studies, he found a high level of agreement across members of Western and Eastern cultures, and even in isolated cultures, on selecting emotional labels that fit facial expressions. The expressions that he found to be universal include those of anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise. It's now presumed that these are hardwired and physiologically distinctive. With anger, there's a flushed face, eyebrows move inwards, the nostrils flare and the jaw clenches. With fear, eyes widen, pupils dilate, the upper lip rises and lips stretch horizontally. With disgust, the nose screws up, the eyes screw up and the corners of the mouth turn down. With happiness, the corners of the mouth rise up in a smile, the eyes lighten, the cheeks rise and the corners of the brows drop. With sadness, eyelids droop, the corners of the mouth drop and the corners of the brows rise. With surprise, the eyebrows rise, eyes widen, forehead wrinkles and the jaw drops open. These expressions are shown across the entire face, although these emotions can be shown as tiny expressions and sometimes they register only in parts of the face. Subtle expressions may occur for many reasons. For example, the emotional experience may be very slight or the emotion may just be beginning. Viewing and experiencing the facial expressions of others can lead to changes in your emotional experience. Subsequently, Paul Ekman added another basic human emotion to the six that he originally identified, that of contempt or smugness. Contempt is the only unilaterally expressed emotion as it only occurs on one side of the face. The eyes are neutral, the lips tighten but it's a unilateral smile with the lip curled up on one side of the face. This emotion involves judgements and some feeling of superiority. There seems to be some debate as to whether this is a universal emotion but it seems to be universally expressed and it seems to be recognised by everyone. More About Emotions Charles Darwin first suggested that emotions are innate, inborn and rooted in our ancestry in his book "Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals", published in 1872. Paul Ekman in the 60s showed, through his psychological and anthropological work looking at basic emotions, that six basic stereotypical emotional expressions - happiness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust and sadness - can be identified. This was his initial work and as we've seen he's added to this. Since then the debate has opened up. Dozens of studies have produced similar results, but it's now thought that basic emotions include shame, indicated by a downturn head and bad posture, and pride, indicated by a puffed up chest and tall posture. These are social emotions. Their expression resembles the dominance and submission postures of other social primates suggesting that they are inherited from very distant ancestors. The Wheel of Emotion Robert Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions extends the idea of basic emotions. This three dimensional model describes the relationships between emotions which is helpful in understanding the complexity of emotions as they interact and change over time. The eight sections indicate eight primary emotion dimensions. These are the six basic emotions that we're familiar with, with the addition of two extra - anticipation and trust. Each of these emotions has an opposite emotion. The opposite of sadness is joy. The opposite of anger is fear. The opposite of anticipation is surprise. The opposite of trust is disgust. At the top of the cone, and in the centre of the wheel, the emotions intensify. So, for example, disgust becomes loathing. If left unchecked emotions will certainly intensify. Moving from the centre towards the three dimensional cone's apex the emotions lessen so that disgust becomes boredom. Finally, between the segments where the emotions have no colour, in the two dimensional model, the emotion is a mixture of the two primary emotions. So disgust and anger become contempt and disgust and sadness become remorse. Emotions are often complex and interrelated and change over time, and this research goes some way to help our understanding. The skill with working with emotions is to recognise your own feelings and emotions - what they are and what they mean. The Myth About Positive and Negative Emotions Positive and negative emotions are terms that are widely used and, indeed, they're used by psychologists and people working in the field of emotional intelligence from time to time. Emotion is a complex state of feeling, resulting in physical or physiological changes that influence our thoughts and our behaviour. Emotions are controlled through interactions within the amygdala and hippocampal complex, which are parts of the limbic system within our brains. This part of the brain is often referred to as the emotional brain. It has no language processing capabilities. It's the neo-cortex, the thinking part of our brain, that assigns a label to the emotion. Emotions are emotions! We experience them for a reason and they contain vital information. We can't really put judgements on emotion as to whether they're positive or good, or whether they're negative or bad. Emotions have developed over the centuries, over aeons, through evolutionary processes as a survival mechanism. They serve us well, as long as we work with them effectively. It's not the emotion that's positive or negative, it's the thought process and the behaviours that they provoke that requires the label. An emotion leads us to behave in a certain way. If it leads us to behave in a way that causes annoyance and upset to others, then that is the important thing we should focus on as being positive or negative. Happiness is often referred to as a positive emotion. It suggests a state that we should all aspire towards all the time, but it's not an appropriate emotion to show at a solemn occasion, such as a funeral. Also, happiness will limit us in our ability to communicate effectively, to negotiate well and to make critical decisions. So-called "negative emotions" such as anger, sadness or fear have physiological effects and can be used in positive ways. We experience them for a reason. Anger can be used in a positive way to right a wrong and to overcome an injustice, and we can use it to stop something bad from happening to other people, Anger also makes us more attentive and careful in our thinking, and drives us to motivate us at certain times. Sadness is experienced as a part of bereavement. This is an emotion that can be expressed positively at solemn occasions. It allows us the chance to come to terms with our loss, to be thankful and then to move on. Fear is often termed a negative emotion, but it stops us from taking unnecessary risks such as walking across a busy road without looking. Also, if fear is such a negative emotion, why do we get so much pleasure from horror films and scary movies? The important thing to remember is not to label emotions as positive or negative, but to look to focus on the behaviour and the outcome of that emotion and look at those as being positive or negative. The way that you use your emotions drives the way that you act and make decisions, and drives your emotional intelligence. Understanding Emotion Emotions contain a lot of information. A lot of it is hidden information, but a lot of it is practical information about yourself and about other people, and managing this information is essential for your well-being and for building relationships. Identifying, assessing and expressing your emotions in the most appropriate ways actually builds and enhance your experiences. Acknowledging and facilitating the expression of your emotions will help in terms of building relationships, but it also helps in terms of empathising with other people. Emotions play out in private and they play out in public to produce these feelings of well-being or they help to enhance your leadership capabilities or they produce flow - that focused, blissful expenditure of energy where you really enjoy doing what you're doing. On the downside, emotions can actually result in distress or distraction or being completely emotionally overwhelmed. Emotions are mental and physiological states associated with a wide range of feelings and thoughts and behaviours. There isn't actually a taxonomy of emotions - there's not a series, there's not a palette of emotions that we can draw on. Emotions are highly subjective. So, how I experience a particular situation will be completely different to the way in which you experience the same situation. You may go along to see a film and think it's the best thing that you've ever seen. I may go along to see the same film and find incredibly boring. Emotions blend together. They're in continual flux. So, the emotions that you were feeling at the beginning of this lecture may be completely different from the emotions that you feeling at the end and your behaviour is a direct result of how you're feeling in your emotional state. In order to understand emotions it's important to recognise in yourself what events and what situations are likely to trigger different emotions. What is it that makes you happy? What is it that makes you sad? What is it that makes you angry? What is it that makes you fearful? Know that these emotions can actually combine together to form complex blends of feelings and realise that emotions will progress over time and they can change from one to another. Emotions are there to help. They provide information and they provide a way which you can express yourself. Emotions actually provide a rich vocabulary for you to describe your feelings and blends of feelings, and by understanding this, and working with your feelings, and understanding them better, you're actually able to have a better understanding of how to respond to certain events. Module 4: Emotional Intelligence Models Module Four - Emotional Intelligence Models On successful completion of this module, you will be able to o Recall some of the pioneers who are well known in the field of emotional intelligence o Describe the five components of the emotional intelligence competency framework o Identify what components form part your inner world and what components form part your outer world o Describe the four abilities of emotional intelligence o State what actions you can take to work with emotional intelligence o Explain how emotional intelligence can be measured Develop your Emotional Intelligence - Lesson Summary Emotional intelligence is a very complex construct which looks very easy on the surface, but it's not easy to deeply understand and not easy to develop. Two American psychologists from Yale University, John D Meyer and Peter Salovey first defined the phrase "emotional intelligence" in the academic literature in the 1980s. Daniel Goleman, another American psychologist, later built on their work and published his wellknown books on the subject in the 1990s. He also produced a framework for emotional intelligence which makes it a lot easier to understand. This framework consists of five elements: Motivation is the drive to work and the drive to succeed. Motivation will differ from person to person. Most people are not necessarily motivated by money, but it can become more important for some people than others. There are other motivating factors and these can include security, doing things to the best of one's ability, recognition and fear of failure. Self-awareness is an understanding about your strengths and your limitations, and how these affect your performance and the way in which you interact with other people. Self regulation, or emotional regulation, looks at understanding managing and controlling emotions. It's all about willpower. It's about how you can regulate your impulses to make good decisions. Empathy is about understanding things from other people's perspectives and how they view situations in a different way to you. Social skills are all about influencing and persuading others leading and managing through collaboration and resolving conflict, whether you're working with people on a one to one basis, in small groups or in large teams. Your emotional intelligence encompasses what goes on in your world. The inner world is what goes on inside your head. It involves self-awareness that leads to how you control yourself and your emotions. Self-awareness is about how aware you are of your strengths and your limitations, and the impact that these can have and that you can have on other people. Self-regulation is about how you control yourself. Self-regulation is How you control your emotions and the ability that you have to think before you act. These impact on how you behave in the outer world, influencing how you empathise with other people and how you use social skills. This is what people see. This is what people experience. This is what people know about you and your emotional intelligence. The outer world of empathy is all about how well you understand other people and their perspectives; how well you can see things from their viewpoint. Empathy then drives your social skills and these involve how well you communicate and interact with others on a one to one basis or when you're working in teams. So your awareness of yourself and your awareness of others leads to the actions and behaviours around your emotional management and how you interact with other people. Emotional intelligence is about awareness - awareness of your self and awareness of others through self understanding and empathy. Emotional intelligence is also about action and behaviour - controlling yourself, regulating your emotions so that you can relate to others better and build healthy, effective relationships. None of this will work without the right attitude, the right drive and motivation. Motivation is about how you motivate yourself and how you motivate other people. There are other models and frameworks of emotional intelligence, but they all follow a very similar framework to this one. In 1990, John (Jack) Mayer and Peter Salovey introduced the concept of emotional intelligence suggesting that some individuals possess the ability to reason about and use emotions to enhance thought more effectively than others. Through their research,they suggested that emotional intelligence is a set of four interrelated abilities. Perceiving emotions. The ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices and cultural artefacts - including the ability to identify one's own emotions. Using emotions. The ability to use emotions to facilitate cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. Understanding emotions. The ability to comprehend the language of emotion and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions and the way they evolve over time. Managing emotions. The ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. In January 2015, I was presenting at the Second International HR Conference on Emotional Intelligence in Mumbai. Also presenting at the conference - indeed, running a pre-conference workshop - was Dr. David Caruso of Yale University. David is one of the pioneers of emotional intelligence working with Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer. The early academic studies on emotional intelligence were published in the 90s by Mayer and Salovey. Working with them, David has continued their pioneering work with his name being added to many of their subsequent publications. David is one of the authors of the MSCEIT. The Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test - MSCEIT - which evaluates emotional intelligence as an ability. I took the opportunity to ask David his thoughts around emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has those two words "emotions" and "intelligence", so, it has to have something to do with both of those. And, in our approach, and by "our" I mean my colleagues, Peter Salovey and Jack Meyer, and I joined them later after their initial conception. We look at emotional intelligence as consisting as a set of abilities. We define it in an objective way. We measure of these in an objective way. And, because they are abilities and sometimes people use the word "skills", it can also teach these and train them. What are they? Well that's pretty simple. First of all it's perceiving emotions, reading emotions in yourself and others. So we ask "How are you?" And beyond "Fine" or "Okay" or "Good", we really want to know the answer to that question. Let's say right now that you're feeling mildly happy. Second ability is facilitating thought - using emotions to facilitate thought. We know that people feeling mildly happy are more likely to innovate and brainstorm - be agreeable, agree to ideas and so forth. Then I might ask. "So you're mildly happy. Why is that?" To understand the underlying causes of emotion, where did it come from? What events occurred today to bring that emotion about in you? And, also, rather than saying "Mildly happy", let's be a little more specific, what's a better word? Is it satisfied, content? Is it happiness itself? Is it joyous? Let's actually label these emotions accurately. Then the fourth ability is manage emotions. If the goal of our conversation today and the goal of people listening to this podcast is to be open minded and build a career of thinking about emotional intelligence, I want to manage your emotions to keep you in that slightly happy, feeling state. And I want the people listening to this, as well as myself, to feel open, to be innovative, to brainstorm and so forth. Can you give us some idea of the differences between EQ and EI? We see the two terms and they seem to be interchanged. I'd like your view on that, please. There are lots of different definitions of emotional intelligence and, in fact, sometimes it's called not EI or emotional intelligence, it's called EQ. When people use the term EQ, a lot of times it's used in a very broad-based way. So basically you could say there's a part of who we are and that is IQ. It predicts certain outcomes. And, everything else falls under this very, very broad umbrella which has come to be called EQ. We see these are very different things. EI - emotional intelligence - is an intelligence. It's related to IQ. It's not it's polar opposite. It's a set of abilities. When people use the term EQ, I believe they're referring to a broad array of abilities, skills, personality,traits, behaviours. Nothing wrong with that. What happens is that also the term EQ is set up in opposition to IQ or general analytical ability. So that's one way to look at it. It's not the way we look at it. In emotional intelligence, again, we define it as an intelligence, it's related to IQ - there's a modest positive correlation with it - and it should be measured as you measure IQ to the extent possible in objectively scored manner. So our approach, which we call EI, is really specific and some people might say narrow. And I don't have an argument against that. We are purposefully narrow and focused. I think the importance of emotional intelligence can be overstated. At times, when you have people talking about a scientific concept, or some phenomenon, they will say the importance of this construct can not be overstated. Well, unfortunately, I think the importance of the construct is often times overstated. So, it's really important to think about what is EI? Again, as we've defined it and measured it. What's it good for anyway? The answer is not for everything. So especially in a business context if we just want to have a transaction. If I'm working in a fast food restaurant and do you need EI? The answer is you don't absolutely need it. It's a transaction. It's script based. "Hello Sir. Welcome to our restaurant. How big an order of fries do you want?" Smile. Take your money. Smile. "Thank you for coming." It's a transaction, it's not an interaction. What we've found with our research, and that of others, is that emotional intelligence - one of the best outcomes of it - is long term, quality relationships. And, that is not just in the workplace, that's also in personal relationships. As well as things in terms of work, greater tolerance for stress. Leaders higher in emotional intelligence create more positive work environments. And, another great part of this is, that it's just not been a nice guy. It's not always showing up with a smile on your face plastered on your face - no matter how you feel. It's the ability to utilise all emotions - sadness, contentment, joy, and, sometimes, anger and anxiety - in intelligent ways to get your job done and the job of those around you. So, I think that's really quite important. It doesn't predict everything but what it does predict, I believe are important outcomes. Six Seconds is a global, not-for-profit organisation working in the field of emotional intelligence with an extremely good reputation. They research emotions in learning and performance, and translate the science into practical tools that create value in education and in organisations. The Six Seconds model of emotional intelligence is very simple, so it can be understood by anybody, whatever their age. The first component is Know Yourself. It's about knowing yourself through your feelings; how you recognise your feelings, patterns in your feelings, and how you use this information and the information contained in emotions. The second component is Give Yourself. This is about applying your thinking to working empathetically with others, and their emotions, in pursuing goals that are ethical and noble. The final component is to Choose Yourself particularly around how you act, what actions you take through your thinking and through navigating emotions. It considers optimism and motivation, and focuses on the consequences of the action that is taken. All three work together with each component influencing the other. The core components are feeling, thinking and acting. All three working in alignment means what we do is about knowing how to work with and use emotional information, why we do it. It's about giving yourself having thought through the consequences and how we do it is about choosing the right actions. All of these work together to give you your emotional intelligence. Most of the researchers in emotional intelligence have developed their own ways of measuring emotional intelligence. The MSCEIT has already been mentioned - the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test - which is an assessment and a measure of emotional intelligence ability. Daniel Goleman jumped on the bandwagon and developed his emotional intelligence measure looking at traits of few years ago. The EQ-i 2.0 was developed by a Reuven Bar-on back in the mid 90s. This is an assessment of both the ability and traits. It's the most scientifically validated and reliable assessment of emotional intelligence. It underwent a major revision a few years ago. The EQ-i 2.0 measures Self-Perception which links in to Self-Expression. Self-Expression links into Interpersonal capabilities. These link into Decision Making capabilities. Decision Making capabilities link into Stress Management and Stress Management links in to Self-Perception. All of these five components can be broken down into three facets of emotional intelligence and this gives a high degree of flexibility in assessing an individual's emotional intelligence when looking at leadership capabilities, when looking in the workplace, when looking outside of work, and, also, when looking as part of a team. One of the other big advantages of the EQ-i 2.0 is that it has a 360 available, which means that an individual can be assessed by looking at what their managers think, what their peers think, what their colleagues think and even their family and friends. This gives it a greater degree of flexibility and applicability for its use at work. Module Five - Develop your Emotional Intelligence On successful completion of this module, you will be able to o List the ways in which you can work better with your emotional intelligence o Identify ways that you can develop your emotional intelligence o Describe a simple solution for improving an aspect of your emotional intelligence o Determine how you can work with emotional intelligence o Explain what you should do when working with your emotional intelligence o Explain what you shouldn't do when working with your emotional intelligence Develop you Emotional Intelligence - Lesson Summary Emotional intelligence can be practised. Emotional intelligence can be developed through learning. Here are seven steps to improve your emotional intelligence. (However, it's important to stress that whilst these look very, very simple, they're extremely hard to put into practice. They take a lot of commitment and a lot of dedication.) "I am responsible for my own feelings." "I am responsible for my own behaviour." "I always have choices about how I respond to situations, to events and to people." "No-one can make me upset, angry, happy or experience any other emotion unless I choose to allow them to do so." "Identifying my choices empowers me to take a fresh look at my behaviour." "Recognising my range of choices is an excellent way to start changing my behaviour for the better." "I can practise and I can learn new and more effective behaviours." Here are six ways in which you can practice emotional intelligence. o When you've been ignoring your emotions for years, it can be quite challenging to tune into them. Notice what is happening in your body with each emotion. 1. Consiusly tune into your emotions - Is your jaw tight? - Is your back sore? - Are your fists clenched? - Is your brow furrowed? Physical sensations can give clues as to what you're experiencing emotionally. Try scanning your whole body to determine what you're experiencing physically and how this relates to your thinking and what you're feeling. As you practice this you'll become more skilled at noticing feelings, even some small subtle ones. 2. Look at layers of feelings o Frequently when people experience an emotion they focus on the most obvious or most intense emotion. For example, in an argument it's easy to notice that you're angry but there are other feelings that surround this. Maybe you're feeling scared, or anxious, or lonely, or unloved. These emotions can happen all at the same time. One doesn't cancel the other one out. They exist together creating a rich tapestry of emotion. 3. What else am I feeling? o When you're experiencing an intense feeling, ask yourself, "What else am I feeling?" In an argument, you're probably expressing anger as the most intense feeling but, in theory, you can choose to express any of the feelings. Focus your energy and attention on one of these feelings versus another. Deliberately select a feeling and work on intensifying it. A tip is to think about how an actor or actress would work to express this feeling. What happens? As you practice, you'll find it will be easier to bring one of your feelings to the fore. It's not about being insincere, it's about choosing one of your feelings as a new starting point. 5. Consider being more optimistic, but in a realistic way o When you're caught up in situations that don't seem to be going right it's easy to become quite pessimistic. This can limit your thinking, especially if your options seem limited. While sometimes it's reasonable and useful to be sad, critical, scared, or even helpless and desperate, you're not likely to solve the problem if you stay in that state. This secret is realistic optimism, and to allow yourself to feel these feelings and use these to clarify the problem enabling you to create new options for finding solutions. Acknowledge the seriousness of the problem and consider alternatives from a realistic perspective. What is it that you need to learn, strengthen, or to get some help with so that you can implement these solutions? Are there any people or books or websites or other resources that can help you? Practising this will build the way that you work with optimism and strengthen your growth mindset. In time, you'll find it easier to acknowledge the true nature of the problem and to create solutions to the problem simultaneously. 5. Ask, “is this a factual issue or a relationship issue?” You'll be able to process factual information easily as your brain will have been trained to analyse data at school and at work. Emotional data about the impact on people in relationships is important but you have to build your skills to consider these. Many people find this difficult and are so focused on being right that they ignore emotional data. Consider everyone involved and make a concerted effort to believe that their views are just as important as yours and they could be just as right as you are. This helps to open up new perspectives and to build empathy. 6. What will create the most value for all of us o Build upon this as you ask yourself, "What will create the most value for all of us?" With so many demands on you, it's easy to become overwhelmed by competing needs and to take a short term focus in the face of uncertainty. Look at creating value for everyone by thinking about the problem from a point in the future - say, five years from now. By doing this, you will get a longer term view; a longer term perspective, leading to options that will still matter in five years time focusing attention and energy on what is most important. Emotional intelligence can be practised easily without special equipment or a big financial investment, without travelling anywhere or leading a team. You can practise it every day, and you can practise it any time and in any situation. Developing your emotional intelligence may seem to be very difficult. When people are making changes in their emotional intelligence, they often assume an "all-or-nothing" mindset - a dramatic change in their behaviour or stay as they are. However, there is an alternative - the One Percent Solution. Identify something that will constitute a very small but slight improvement and work on it. Work on it every day to make it an unconscious habit. As time goes by, these small improvements accumulate and you suddenly find a very big gap between how you were and how you've improved. What small changes can you make? What are you going to do differently? What will the impact be? A good example is, when you arrive at work say "Good morning" consistently to a particular person. Over time, you'll notice a shift in their attitude and behaviour and this will affect your attitude and behaviour. You'll also notice people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don't. Making the changes requires repetition and rehearsal over the weeks. It doesn't matter if you mess it up. Just try it!! Do's and Don'ts for using Emotional Intelligence. Enjoy working with your emotional intelligence. Do’s : Look at how you emotionally react to other people. - How do they make you feel? How do you use those emotions and feelings in terms of your relationship? Consider ways in which you might test and develop your emotional intelligence. We've looked at the EQ-i 2.0 assessment as a test and a measure. There are others available. Work with a coach who can help you to work with your emotions and understand how you're reacting to situations. Ask yourself honestly how well you react to the concerns of other people. - How do you use your empathy? - Can you see things from their perspective? Don’t;s Don't assume that you don't bring your emotions to work with you. You don't leave them at home. - How do you feel about your job? - Do you love it? - Do you hate it? The way in which you answer the questions will give you an understanding that there is some emotional component to the way in which you approach your work. Don't think that emotional intelligence is not relevant for your job. You need to make decisions in your work. These will be underpinned by how you feel about the situation and how you use your thinking and how you use your intuition. Don't think that your emotional intelligence needs no further development. It does! You will continually look at ways of improving yourself and the way in which you work with others.