What is Emotional Intelligence?
Updated: Mar 18, 2022
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand our own emotions and the emotions of others and handle each situation appropriately seeing from the perspectives of all the angles.
EI has 4 domains and 12 EI competencies. The four domains include Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Management.
These 12 competencies include the following:
Emotional self-awareness
Emotional self-control
Adaptability
Achievement orientation
Positive outlook
Empathy
Organizational awareness
Influence
Coach and mentor
Conflict management
Teamwork
Inspirational leadership
Understanding these EI competencies is a great way to know our strengths and what we need to focus on to improve. Incorporating these into our daily lives is essential to becoming an effective leader. Are you able to identify your EI competency strengths from this list?
Reference:
Harvard Business Review article dated February 6, 2017: Emotional Intelligence has 12 elements.
Reading this piece made me think back to a time when I was managing a small team during a tight project deadline. I was so focused on the numbers and the deliverables that I barely noticed the growing tension in the room. One of my team members, usually quiet, finally spoke up about feeling overwhelmed. I remembered a tip from a workshop about “listening for emotions, not just words,” and I paused to ask how she was coping and what support she needed https://asic.gov.au/ That simple shift in focus turned the atmosphere around; she suggested a brief check‑in each morning, and the whole team started sharing small wins and frustrations. By the end of the week, not only did we…