
Being
Smart
About
Emotional
Intelligence
It’s been nearly 25 years since Peter
Solovey and John D. Mayer first used
the term “emotional intelligence” to de-scribe
a different kind of intelligence
that many business leaders believe is
essential to achieving success in the work-place.
Unlike many other business trends
that have come and gone, emotional in-telligence
– an intelligence that involves
the ability to monitor one’s own and oth-ers’
feelings and emotions and to use that
information to guide one’s thinking and
action – still has legs. Business leaders
continue to use the term and value it as a
key employment factor. There is also ev-idence
that HR and talent management
professionals who make increasing emo-tional
intelligence among all employee
levels a strategic organizational priority
will help boost their organization’s bot-tom
line.
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE?
There are four branches of emotional in-telligence
when seen as a set of abilities:
1. Recognizing emotion: This means
a person is aware of what he or she is
feeling while also being aware of others’
feelings. In the workplace, this means
that emotionally intelligent leaders un-derstand
that feelings affect their em-ployees’
work and productivity. Emo-tions
can be difficult to assess, however,
because people exhibit their feelings dif-ferently,
or sometimes not at all.
2. Facilitating emotions: Emotionally intel-ligent
leaders know how to make others
feel good about themselves, and how to be
engaged and productive in the workplace.
Emotionally intelligent leaders must be
aware of their own emotions while being
empathetic to those around them.
Illustration by Anne-Louise Quarfoth / Photos.com
FEELING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS
By Lauren Garris
3. Understanding emotions: Those with a
highly developed emotional intelligence
go a step beyond merely recognizing their
own and others’ emotions; they understand
them. Truly understanding emotions re-quires
insight into the chain of emotions
that occur as events unfold. For example,
anger may result from disappointment,
embarrassment and feelings of sadness – a
chain of emotions culminating in anger.
4. Managing emotions: Emotionally in-telligent
leaders are able to deliberately
manage their own and others’ emotions
to inspire and create passion in people, ac-cording
to a study by Alfus W. Rothman.
HR and talent management profes-sionals
can use these four branches of
emotional intelligence in selection prac-tices
and in employee and leadership
development activities to help create a
more emotionally intelligent organization.
22 ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL