Emotional Intelligence

Introduction to the concept of emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) refers to the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others (Goleman,1998). Emotional Intelligence has been found increasingly relevant to the professional development of employees and managers in the corporate environment. As a relatively new adaptation in leadership research, the EQ principles help to understand people's behaviours and leadership styles and, thus, shed light on their interpersonal skills and potential. 

Goleman (1998) argues that IQ (Intelligence Quotient), or conventional intelligence, is too narrow to measure how successful we are in dealing with problems and people, both in the social and work related environment. In contrast, success requires more than IQ, which has tended to be the traditional measure of intelligence, ignoring essential behavioural and character elements. 

As a result, some people may be academically brilliant in terms of logic and analysis and yet are socially and inter-personally inept. Thus, emotional intelligence is adding to IQ as an explanation of successful leadership capabilities. More specifically, the Emotional intelligence model by Goleman et al. (2002) is composed of four interconnected sections: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management; see Exhibit 2. 

Exhibit 2: Emotional intelligence model

Source: Goleman et al. (2002)

How EQ was perceived in the interviews

In some interviews, employees frequently mentioned positive motivation and communication behaviour of their supervisors that can be associated with emotional intelligence, here are some examples:

• “Communicates openly about difficult situations”
• “Listens to my problems”
• “Can read my mood from my (non-verbal) reactions or my face expression”
• “Can notice when someone is “under the weather” when they are distant and disconnected”

On the contrary, there was one employee who emphasised that since the pandemic began and everyone started to work from home, it became apparent that her supervisor lacked emotional skills, such as empathy, which lead to:

• “Unpleasant conversations”
• “Disdain for excuses, not only related to me, but also to the rest of the team”
• “Constant complains”
• “Lack of curiosity regarding the mood of everyone”

When asking one manager whether she thought as to whether she would consider herself an emotionally intelligent person, she clearly said yes. This was confirmed by her employees, who explicitly stated that this leadership skill was the main reason that the transition to remote work was so successful. It may be even better when both, the manager and the employee, are highly emotionally intelligent. 

While, naturally, it is easier to already be an emotionally intelligent person when it comes to remote leadership, it was widely believed by the interviewees that EQ can be trained. This also applies for people with a lower level of EQ predisposition.