About Emotional Intelligence
| Emotional intelligence Is the Other Kind of Smart.
When emotional intelligence first appeared to the masses in 1995, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time. This anomaly turned on its head a normal assumption of people that the sole source of success was IQ. Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack.
Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of six core skills that are both learnable and reachable:
| Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, IQ and Personality are Different
Emotional intelligence (EQ) taps into a fundamental element of human behavior that is distinct from your intellect. An EQ skill set is distinct from that of an IQ skill set. IQ is like a genetic lottery which remains fixed after the adolescent age. Intelligence is your ability to learn, and it's the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is a flexible set of skills that can be acquired and enhanced with practice. Although EQ is partly genetic, you can learn and acquire the skills as well as nurture them, at any age! Personality is the final piece of the puzzle. It's the stable "style" that defines each of us. Personality is the result of hard-wired preferences, such as the inclination toward introversion or extroversion. EQ is the driver of personality traits. IQ, emotional intelligence, and personality each cover unique ground and help to explain what makes a person tick.
| Emotional Intelligence, is Linked to Performance
How much of an impact does emotional intelligence have on your professional success? The short answer is: a lot! It's a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction with a tremendous result. Equip Corp tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. Your emotional intelligence is the foundation for a host of critical skills - it impacts most everything you say and do each day. Of all the people we've studied at work, we've found that 90% of top performers are also high in emotional intelligence. On the flip side, just 20% of bottom performers are high in emotional intelligence. You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but the chances are slim. Naturally, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make more money-an average of $29,000 more per year than people with a low degree of emotional intelligence. The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so direct that every point increase in emotional intelligence adds $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world. We haven't yet been able to find a job in which performance and pay aren't tied closely to emotional intelligence.
| Emotional Intelligence, Can be Developed
The communication between your emotional and rational "brains" is the physical source of emotional intelligence. The pathway for emotional intelligence starts in the brain, at the spinal cord. Your primary senses enter here and must travel to the front of your brain before you can think rationally about your experience. However, first they travel through the limbic system, the place where emotions are generated. So, we have an emotional reaction to events before our rational mind is able to engage. Emotional intelligence requires effective communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain. "Neuro-Plasticity" is the term neuroscientists use to describe the brain's ability to change. Your brain grows new connections as you learn new skills. The change is gradual, as your brain cells develop new connections to speed the efficiency of new skills acquired. Using strategies and experiential learning to increase your emotional intelligence allows the billions of microscopic neurons lining the road between the rational and emotional centers of your brain to branch off small "arms" (much like a tree) to reach
out to the other cells. A single cell can grow 15,000 connections with its neighbors. This chain reaction of growth ensures it's easier to kick this new behavior into action in the future. Once you train your brain by repeatedly using new emotional intelligence strategies, emotionally intelligent behaviors become habits.
