Reference: What is Emotional Quotient?

INTRODUCTION

Emotional Quotient (EQ) refers to a unique set of skills and abilities most often present in top performers, described as the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and the emotions of others to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately. This emotional information is used to guide thinking and behavior, once referred to as “soft skills.”

Many personal and professional situations require EQ skills and abilities, yet most people have had no formal education on the subject matter. As it pertains to error reduction and improving human performance, an individual’s EQ directly relates to their ability to make critical decisions under pressure during the most complicated or routine tasks. Direct benefits of an individual having a measurably high EQ include effective problem solving, quickly adapting to change, and the ability to resolve conflicts quickly.

The image above shows the five core Emotional Quotient competencies. Notice the step-by-step path to developing an individual’s skills and abilities; effective development of “self” skills leads to effective “social” skills.

The science of EQ originated in the early 1990s by Dr. Daniel Goleman. Research has compiled an enormous amount of information to help better understand human behavior and why people act and perform as they do. The science of EQ has evolved so much that we can now identify and measure an individual’s self-competencies and social-competencies. Earlier research in human behavior referred to these as interpersonal and intra-personal skills. The new refined research separates the skills and abilities into the self domain and the social domain.

By completing an online or written EQ assessment, an individual can benchmark these critical EQ skills and begin targeting specific skill development strategies to improve personal performance and leadership influence. This science has become so targeted and refined based on the principles of cause and effect. In the same way an individual can improve health by proper diet and physical activity, an individual can improve personal performance by engaging mental and emotional activities into daily routines.

EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT COMPETENCY MODEL

Due to emerging technologies in the field of neurology, EQ is now measurable and directly impacts a person’s ability to perform a specific task, whether complex or routine. EQ skills and abilities are learned over time in both personal and professional experiences. It is only recently that we have been able to identify a new standard to measure, teach, and develop these critical skill sets.

IQ stands for Intellectual Quotient and is inherent at birth; EQ stands for Emotional Quotient and involves learned behaviors. Any age, any gender, any human can learn emotional quotient skills.

Our schools and academic institutions have taught us about Intellectual Quotient (IQ). IQ is defined as a number representing a person’s reasoning ability; a score determined by one’s performance on a standardized intelligence test relative to the average performance of others of the same age. By contrast, EQ assessments measure how smart the individual is about their own emotions. Now validated by modern science, emotions can either help or hurt any given situation regardless of technical skills or competencies.

The EQ competency model identifies and measures five core competencies or categories of skills that a person can learn. For each of the five categories there are a number of individual skills referred to as emotional Intelligence (EI) skills. Each of the EI skills are directly assigned to one of the five EQ categories. The EQ Competency Map is referred to using the sequential numbers and used as a development path; specific mental and emotional exercises to develop each individual EI skill and EQ competency.

PERFORMANCE AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS

Case studies across multiple industries consistently show that top performers score high in EQ competencies and EI skills. An emotionally balanced person will be successful in anticipating adversity, its impact, and anticipating the potential response of others to adversity in personal and professional settings. The EQ industry has advanced whereby any individual can take a valid and reliable EQ assessment and begin receiving detailed insights to one’s own emotional intelligence. Most EQ assessment providers include specific activities to learn and develop specific EI skills in the same way a weightlifting program can target specific physical muscles on the body.

Notice how the five EQ categories are sequentially numbered and how each category or competency has five emotional intelligence skills.

Whereas an individual may be technically trained in their profession or craft and have the certifications to validate their knowledge-base, human error often occurs and increases proportionally when technically competent workers measure low on EQ assessments. This means the individual’s EI skills are deficient and the individual requires education and new techniques to develop the self-awareness and self-regulation skill sets.

Although the individual demonstrates a strong technical knowledge of the trade, low EQ scores lead to personal performance concerns and social behavior confrontations. Within teams or work groups, and even in frontline management or leadership roles, low EQ commonly results in placing blame, not accepting responsibility, confrontation, argument, or demeaning and disrespectful behavior to co-workers and subordinates.

A new best practice is to enroll select members of the workforce into Emotional Quotient education similar to this course. New methods and error reduction controls are being tested to validate EQ education for all competent and new hire employees, no matter the job or classification. Specifically, those job titles with known occupational hazards benefit from high EI skill sets, as well as roles that include social competencies in management and leadership.

COMMAND AND CONTROL

History teaches a time when a business model called “command and control” was the dominate mindset with line management and the workforce. With this business model, only a few management-level employees knew what was happening at the company and the majority of the workforce was expected to work—not think, talk, or ask questions—and just do the work.

Today this old “command and control” model hinders many of the best practices and lessons learned on the job. Organizations that still operate under this outdated model are directly linked to low EQ competencies.

Today both management and workforce are encouraged to stop work or speak up if they think or feel something is not right. Both thinking and feeling are skill-based, measurable, and teachable skills using the emerging science of EQ and EI. Employers taking an intentional effort to develop the EQ competencies of their workforce can directly impact a company’s key performance indicators in all disciplines of the organization, including finances, productivity, quality, safety, and schedule.

CONCLUSION

Top-performing organizations are a direct result of their human capital (the workforce) and hard work at all levels. Top performing organizations create a learning and sharing environment, both peer-to-peer and management-to-workforce by developing these critical human performance skill sets and competencies. When dealing with the mental and emotional states of today’s workforce this emerging science is positively impacting how the workforce thinks and feels about their personal work and those around them.

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