Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize, control and express your feelings, identify and appraise the emotions of the people around you. It measures one’s social and emotional competence and the interaction with others, the response to stress and pressure in our personal and work life.

Understanding the difference between EI and IQ

The IQ represents one person’s reasoning or logical competence and it is inborn ability. While the EI refers to one’s ability to identify and understand his feelings and of those that surround him.

IQ is an indicator of the academic competency, how well we might do in school or university, while the EI indicates the success in our lives and careers. The emotional intelligence can be improved, re ned and acquired whenever we desire, while the IQ is determined by genetics and cannot be changed by any method at any stage of our lives.

The importance of EI in everyday life

The higher level of EI helps to deal with uncertainty and troublesome situations as we manage our emotions more successfully. With more developed EI we are more self-aware, able to empathize with others and communicate effectively, overcome challenges and act more rational.

The effect of the Emotional Intelligence in the workplace

Studies have proven that the EI plays a significant role in how the employees interact with each other, the way they manage stress and conflicts, the overall job performance and job satisfaction. Emotional Intelligence has been ranked sixth out of 10 skills in the World Economic Forum’s list that employees should possess in order to succeed in their workplace. Therefore, a large number of organizations across the world replace IQ tests with EI’s assessment in their hiring process as more and more employers value the importance of the EI level as an indicator of leadership potential.

The importance of Emotional Intelligence for Leaders

Years of research has shown that leaders tend to score higher in Emotional Intelligence than the general population. Also, many professionals find it easier to focus on improving a few specific skills that underlie broader leadership competencies, making the EQ-I 2.0 subscales the perfect building blocks to reaching your leadership potential.

Emotional intelligence is an important characteristic for anyone at any level in the organization, but it is especially important for those who have a leadership position. The EI has an influence on how the leader communicates and manages the team. A more successful leader is the one that understands how his emotions and actions affect the people around him, one that controls his emotions in any situation and reacts in a calm way.

The level of EI is connected to the leadership capabilities, to one’s competence to manage and lead, but also probably most relevant – to inspire the team. The best leaders are not individuals with high IQ but excellent motivators, self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses, that emphasizes humility and empathy rather than arrogance and egotism.

The EI is not a skill that can be learned or perfected with taking one course or session, but a process that requires time and patience to learn about yourself, understand your feelings and help others do the same.

How do we measure and improve our EI?

The EQ-i 2.0 is the world’s leading psychometric assessment tool that measures Emotional Intelligence and how it can impact individuals, leaders, teams and the workplace. It is the rst scientifcally validated measure for emotional intelligence combined with research from premier organizations. Created by Multi-Health Systems Inc (MHS), a leading publisher of scientifically validated assessments for more than 30 years which products are sold in more than 75 countries around the world.

Based on more than 20 years of research worldwide, the EQ-I 2.0 examines an individual’s social and emotional strengths and weaknesses. Respondents self- report on their life and workplace performance in 15 key areas of emotional skill that have been proven to contribute to proficiency in complex business activities such as contact resolution and planning.

Implementing the assessment as part of the leadership coaching will bring the organization higher performance. The coaching can be focused on the individuals within the team which will impact the organization’s performance or for leadership development.

The EI assessments are inexpensive, simple and very effective ways to impact leadership development by coaching, job rotations and assignments; and can help during the hiring and developing staff.