Emotional Intelligence?

A very popular part of management and leadership development is Emotional Intelligence and it is a technique that is gaining in popularity and interest. Much of the current interest in Emotional Intelligence is traced to the work of Daniel Goleman so watch and listen as he introduces how EI can be used to help leaders and leadership development.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Daniel Goleman proposed that EI contains a wide set of competencies and skills that are used by individuals to generate their performance as a leader. Goleman suggests the presence of four main areas;

• Self-awareness – the ways in which we identify our own emotions and the way in which they impact on us and others. These help us to make a wide variety of decisions.
• Self-management – our ability to control our emotions and adapt them to the changing circumstances that we find around us.
• Social awareness – the ability to recognise and work with the emotions of others.
• Relationship Management – the ability to inspire, influence and develop others while managing conflict.

Goleman includes a set of 3 emotional competencies within each element of his approach to EI and at Director360, our sister company, we have used this set of competences to create an EI 360 Report.

Can I improve my Emotional Intelligence?

The good news is a resounding “yes”. Emotional Intelligence competencies are a set of learned capabilities we are born with and which must then be worked on and developed to help us to achieve outstanding success. Goleman suggests that this outstanding performance is achieved by those who master their own Emotional Intelligence.

What next? How do I make use of this?

You can read more about Emotional Intelligence including an outline of the six different leadership styles by downloading an extract from Goleman’s article on Emotional Intelligence from Harvard Business Review. Then explore how you can use Emotional Intelligence for yourself, for your team and for your organisation by contacting us.