Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is a somewhat intangible quality that affects how well we manage our behaviour, as well as that of others, thereby helping us navigate through social situations and making personal decisions with the objective of attaining positive results.

Sounds simple enough but there's way more to it than the definition outlined above and the intangible quality does make it difficult to nail down. However, the talk is that strong emotional intelligence ( aka EQ) mixed with a high intelligence quotient makes for a lot of success, keeping in mind that your EQ is perhaps a bit more important than your IQ.

Think of a wheel, divided in half, one part being related to your Personal Competence and one your Social Competence. Within the half relating to personal competence will be your Self Awareness and Self Management. In the other half relating to your Social Competence will be Social Awareness and Relationship Management.

Personal Competence focuses on you as an individual, of course, and is a gauge of your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your own behaviour.

Social Competence is, conversely, your awareness of those around you and how well you understand and react to their behaviour and motives.

It's easy to see why Self Awareness and Self Management are factors in developing your Personal Competence, just as Social Awareness and Relationship Management are critical to developing your Social Competence.

Ultimately, we're all looking for positive results and the first and most important step to achiev this is understanding how EQ helps. Watch for future posts that delve a little deeper into this concept, with the idea of improving your EQ and helping your personal growth.