Day-180

 Emotional Intelligence (EI)

by Daniel Goleman

Man / woman is an emotional being and the emotional balance of people differs markedly at different times and occasions.

·       This creates a number of issues and problems in interpersonal relations at home, office and public at large. We come across instances of emotional outbreak  on numerous occasions’ in others and even in ourselves.

·       Many a time the affected individual is not able to do anything due to the overpowering  emotions .

·        Many even regret their words, deeds later on wondering as to whether they behaved like that at the first instance.

·       All these only prove that the individual concerned was swayed by emotions and could not act intelligently as called for.

·       Hence the importance and relevance of the book - Emotional intelligence (EI) to one and all, irrespective of age, gender ,cadre and position in life.

EI is the capability of individuals to recognize their own and other peoples emotions well in time such that they can cope with the situations in a win-win manner. 

The term, EI, became widely known with the publication of Daniel Goleman's book: Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ (1995). Goleman has followed up with several further popular publications of a similar theme that reinforce use of the term.

 Emotional Intelligence broadly includes four types of abilities viz .Perceiving emotions – Using emotions – Understanding emotions – Managing emotions i.e. the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others.

 Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

The model given by Daniel Goleman focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance covering, among others, the following-

1.    Self-awareness – the ability to know one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses,etc.

2.    Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one's disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

3.    Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction

4.    Empathy – considering other people's feelings especially when making decisions

5.    Motivation – being driven to achieve the targets/goals

Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies to be acquired to master EI. 

• Emotional competencies are not innate/inborn talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance. 
• Goleman advocates  that all  individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence level  that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies and the same can be acquired through self efforts and coaching by others.

       The infamous head butting incidence by Zinedine Zidane in a  football world cup final  only showed how the emotional outbreaks can mar the end result, which he regretted at a later date.

· The good news  is that through  self efforts /coaching one can acquire  appropriate EI, whatever be the currently situation . 

That makes the book  a must read for all  and especially managers for successful inter- personal relations at all times and places.

    A book  worth

·        reading,

·        IMBIBING,

·        sharing and even

·         presenting to friends, colleagues , near and dear.

 Be peaceful.

Vande Mataram

8 20AM