Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

About Emotional Intelligence

When talking about intelligence, the first associations that are made typically refer to mathematical or linguistic skills, and “IQ” is a common term that subsequently comes to mind. However, a large body of literature suggests that there is no such thing as “intelligence” per se, but rather a multitude of them. One such type of intelligence is labelled “emotional intelligence” (hereafter referred to as EI). Over the last 25 years, it has received significant attention for its wide implications on an individual’s private and professional endeavours.

The basic definition of EI was made by Salovey and Mayer in 1990, describing EI as the “ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one’s own thinking and actions” (Salovey and Mayer 1990). Salovey et al. further suggested five main domains which characterize emotional intelligence, which were later popularized to a large extent by psychologist Daniel Goleman .

1. Knowing one’s emotions. This is also often referred to as self-awareness, meaning the ability to “recognize a feeling as it happens” (Goleman 1995).

2. Managing emotions, so that they match a given situation. This builds on the first domain since handling emotions first requires being aware of them.

3. Motivating oneself. This refers to managing emotions (domain 2) in pursuit of a higher goal, such as delaying gratification or resisting certain impulses.

4. Recognizing emotions in others. Often described as empathy, recognizing emotions in others also requires emotional awareness in the first place (domain 1). Empathic people have an advantage at understanding the “subtle social signals” which express the needs and wants of others (Goleman 1995).

5. Handling relationships. This task essentially breaks down to the management of emotions in other people. It holds wide implications for any type of interpersonal interactions and is therefore of particular interest when examining emotional intelligence and leadership.