9.3 Spotlight on Human Resources Skills

As a Human Resources professional, it is important to understand emotional intelligence or EI. Watch Travis Bradberry’s TED Talk, “The Power of Emotional Intelligence.” Travis will then walk us through a lesson on the meaning of EI and how it differs from IQ.

Video: “How To Manipulate Emotions | Timon Krause | TEDxFryslân” by TEDx Talks [18:27] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License.Transcript and closed captions available on YouTube.

Emotional intelligence (or emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your emotions positively to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Regarding happiness and success, emotional intelligence matters as much as intellectual ability. Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at school and work, and achieve your career and personal goals. It can also help you connect with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most.

Four attributes commonly define emotional intelligence:

• Self-management – You can control impulsive feelings and behaviours, manage your emotions healthily, take the initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.
• Self-awareness: You recognize your emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behaviour. You know your strengths and weaknesses and are self-confident.
• Social awareness – You have empathy. You can understand other people’s emotions, needs, and concerns, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.
• Relationship management – You can develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Why is Emotional Intelligence so Important?

As we know, it’s not the most intelligent people who are successful or fulfilled. You probably know academically brilliant people yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their relationships. Intellectual ability or intelligence quotient (IQ) isn’t enough to succeed. Yes, your IQ can help you get into college, but your EQ will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing your final exams. EQ and IQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they build off one another.

Emotional Intelligence Affects:

Emotional Intelligence affects your performance at school or work. High emotional intelligence can help you navigate the social complexities of the workplace, lead and motivate others, and excel in your career. When gauging important job candidates, many companies now rate emotional intelligence as important as technical ability and employ EQ testing before hiring.

Emotional Intelligence affects your physical health. If you’re unable to manage your emotions, you are probably not managing your stress, either. This can lead to serious health problems. Uncontrolled stress raises blood pressure, suppresses the immune system, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, contributes to infertility, and speeds up the aging process. The first step to improving emotional intelligence is to learn how to manage stress.

Emotional Intelligence affects your mental health. Uncontrolled emotions and stress can also impact your mental health, making you vulnerable to anxiety and depression. You’ll struggle to form strong relationships if you cannot understand, get comfortable with, or manage your emotions. This, in turn, can leave you feeling lonely and isolated and further exacerbate any mental health problems.

Emotional Intelligence affects your relationships. By understanding your emotions and how to control them, you can better express how you feel and understand how others are feeling. This allows you to communicate more effectively and forge stronger relationships at work and in your personal life.

Emotional Intelligence affects your social intelligence. Being in tune with your emotions serves a social purpose, connecting you to others and the world around you. Social intelligence enables you to recognize friend from foe, measure another person’s interest in you, reduce stress, balance your nervous system through social communication, and feel loved and happy.

Building Emotional Intelligence: 4 Key Skills to Increasing Your EQ

The skills that make up emotional intelligence can be learned at any time. However, it’s important to remember that there is a difference between simply learning about EQ and applying that knowledge to your life. Just because you know you should do something doesn’t mean you will—especially when you become overwhelmed by stress, which can override your best intentions. To permanently change behaviour in ways that stand up under pressure, you must learn how to overcome stress at the moment and in your relationships and remain emotionally aware.

The critical skills for building your EQ and improving your ability to manage emotions and connect with others are:

1. Self-management
2. Self-awareness
3. Social awareness
4. Relationship management

Emotional Intelligence Skills and Competencies

Competency	Skill Area	Description
Personal	Self-awareness	Knowing one’s self
	Self-regulation	Managing one’s self
	Motivation	Sentiments and passions that facilitate the attainment of goals
Social	Empathy	Understanding of others and compassion toward them
	Social skills	Expertise in inspiring others to be in agreement

Chapter 9 Exercise 2: Emotional Intelligence Self-Assessments

Complete the Emotional Intelligence self-assessment test.

Review your EI score and reflect on your findings.

“Chapter 42: Emotional Intelligence” from Foundations For Success by David Capriola is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

“1.2 Emotional Intelligence” from Leading Change in Health Systems: Strategies for RN-BSN Students by Kathy Andresen DNP, MPH, RN, CNE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.