Emotional Intelligence

What is it?

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is how somebody manages their personality to be both personally and interpersonally effective. Emotional Intelligence is a combination of attitudes, habits and skills which can be acquired, developed, and enhanced.

EI is defined as ‘the practice of managing our personality to be both personally and interpersonally effective’.

What difference does it make?

The ability to be self-aware and manage how emotions drive personal and interpersonal behaviour will determine:

• How effectively a leader can create a high-performance culture that sustains employee engagement

• How effectively a manager can establish a climate of trust within their team that fosters collaboration and performance

• How effectively a technical expert can connect with others and contribute to the wider goals of an organisation.

Research and surveys consistently rank EI as increasingly essential for the future of work. Numerous studies show that organisations failing to properly address the emotional and social aspects of work are less likely to succeed.

• EI can help to increase the prediction of job performance over and above traditional personality and cognitive ability assessments.

• EI assessments can provide a more granular focus on the emotional and social aspects of personality, compared to traditional personality questionnaires.

• EI is particularly important for job performance in roles with high emotional labour.

• Individuals with high EI tend to be more satisfied at work, committed to their organisation, and less likely to leave.

• Developing EI has been linked to improved resilience, reduced stress, and enhanced well-being.

• The EI of leaders has a significant influence on the job satisfaction of the people working for them.

• Organisations report that reasons for role failure and lost customers tend to be due more often to attitudinal and interpersonal factors than to technical competence.

• Many of the challenges facing organisations can be supported through the application of EI.

• The impact of EI training is shown to be developable and sustainable over time.