Are you emotionally intelligent

Do we like our smartest friends the most? Do the smartest people make the best partners: boyfriends, girlfriends? Do the smartest people make the best employees? Corporate America has reached the conclusion that the best employees are not necessarily the most intellectually intelligent: the best employees are Emotionally Intelligent. Corporate America is increasingly using measures of Emotional Intelligence in employee hiring decisions and in job performance evaluation. People entering the job market today need to know about Emotional Intelligence.
Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotions are automatic reactions to events. Some are positive (joy, hugging) and some are negative (anger, violence). Generally speaking, Emotional Intelligence refers to our ability to manage our emotions and to interact effectively with others.
Why is Emotional Intelligence Important?
The workplace has become a very complex. Today, the typical work environment involves teams of people rather than individual contributors: IT specialists, salespeople, contracts people, planners, developers, managers, and administrative staff. The success of a business depends on how well these teams of people get along. Numerous studies have shown that the best teams are not necessarily made up of the academically smartest people. A certain degree of book-smarts is required, of course. However, Emotional Intelligence seems to be an equally important factor in team effectiveness. That is why Corporate America has focused on hiring Emotionally Intelligent people.
Are you Emotionally Intelligent?
This question may not be as easy to answer as you might think. It may be difficult because we are often unaware of how we are perceived by others. I once did a study of coaches’ perceptions of their effectiveness compared to the player’s perceptions of their coach’s effectiveness: they were as different as night and day. Many of the coaches saw themselves one way, but the players saw them in an entirely different way. For example, some coaches thought they were good listeners, and open to new ideas, whereas their players felt that they did not listen and were stuck in old ways of doing things. Self-awareness is often difficult to achieve. One way to verify our self-perceptions is to compare them to the opinions others have of us.
On 11Sep06 the Student Counseling Center will be hosting a 2-hr workshop designed to help students understand their level of Emotional Intelligence. We will measure participants’ Emotional Intelligence directly, and we will also get data from people who know the participants. The workshop will help you compare the results to determine consistency, and will also present ways of strengthening areas that may need work. The workshop will give participants a competitive edge in the job market. I encourage you to take advantage of this interesting and informative workshop.