Emotional Intelligence - Essay Example

Introduction The importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) cannot really be overemphasized. For a leader or simply an employee, EQ is very important in inundating one with much information and awareness on how to interact effectively and engage one another in the workplace. Emotional intelligence is the innate ability to understand and manage one’s emotions and the emotions of people around us. Such intelligence acquaints a person with many skills on managing relationships and navigating the complex social networks often realized in the workplace and in other sectors of life. It should be realized that every individual possesses different levels of skills ad capabilities. In order to become better leaders, it is important for the individual to grow and develop their emotional intelligence in order to manage people better. The need to cultivate emotional intelligence arises out of several needs (Goleman, 65). Self-awareness The case provides an analysis in which an individual is able to be self-aware and recognize the emotions as they occur around him. As John improves in EQ, he is able to understand himself better and the people he manages in the organization greatly depend upon him. More importantly, his social life improves drastically due to the self-awareness. This is certainly an important skill for all leaders as it enables them to discover and understand their skills, strengths and weaknesses. Such leaders are able to understand the emotions of their workers and therefore treat them in the most appropriate way. The result of such awareness is an improvement in the overall performance in the organization. Emotional management From the case, it is seen that John eventually manages to stay aware of his feelings and those of his senior regarding his performance in the organization. He realizes that despite the fact that he is a good performer in his field, he still needs to horn his management skills. It is basically a question of managing emotions and clearly understanding the wider picture in the whole organization (Goleman, 23). At the end, it is seen that John cannot simply rush into decisions but will clearly manage his emotions and make the most appropriate decision. For leaders, emotional management is a vital aspect and should be greatly valued. A leader should know how to balance situations and counsel his subjects without showing any inappropriate emotions in the process. In such a case, the leader will earn and maintain their respect from the subjects. In the case of John, many workers are free to consult him on various issues as a result of the respect he has earned. Effective communication People who can effectively manage their emotions and clearly understands themselves will definitely be good communicators in most respects. The feeling of self-awareness breeds confidence whereby the individual is in a position to clearly state their views and opinions on various situations. For a leader, the aspect of communication is very important and it is therefore important that such confidence is present. John is able to inspire and motivate people and is therefore in a mentor for many workers in the organization. He coaches many people on some of these critical qualities due to his ability to communicate effectively. That communication is basically a product of the emotional awareness which he has slowly earned from his emotional intelligence training (Matthews, 56). Social awareness Emotional intelligence is very important for social awareness. In the case of John, it is seen that his knowledge in this respect has enabled him to become a better coach in the soccer field and he can relate effectively with his students. In the workplace, he is actually his employee’s favorite due to his social interaction skills. Given that he can understand the emotions of the people around him better, he is in a proper position to relate effectively with these people. It is also seen that John’s relationship with his wife has improved greatly following his increased EQ awareness (Matthews, 79). He now understands the feelings of his wife better and this has improved their relationship. It is important for leaders to empathize with their employee and understand their situations and position in the workplace. The leaders should inspire and motivate the workers and everybody in their social environment. Emotional intelligence is therefore a critical component in ensuring a socially cohesive society where people relate well and understand one another. Conflict resolution Many workplaces are normally characterized by different types of conflicts. While some of these conflicts cannot totally be eliminated, steps should always be put into place in managing them. Conflict management is one of the most important organizational concerns and every leader should be well acquainted with skills on managing conflicts within their jurisdiction. Leaders with emotional intelligence are always better equipped in managing and handling conflicts better. Conflicts basically arise due to misunderstandings and can therefore be easily addressed through agreements. However, it requires skills on emotions. In the case study, John is in a better position to handle conflicts given that he clearly understands the emotions of his juniors. Through emotional intelligence, leaders can effectively manage emotions and thereby address any disagreements often realized in the workplace. Self-regulation Self-regulation is the ability to manage your internal states, resources, feelings and intuitions. This ability is very essential in the workplace as it enables one to easily control themselves in different situations. Through emotional intelligence, self-control becomes much easy and one can therefore manage any disruptive impulses and emotions. In the same way, through self-regulation, a worker will always remain trustworthy by maintaining the highest standards of integrity and honesty. A self-regulated individual becomes an innovator who is able to come up with solutions in situations where challenges are met. The sense of self-regulation is always a product of emotional intelligence and it arises from the total understanding of the feelings, emotions and all the abilities of an individual. People of such qualities are also able to easily adapt to different situations in addition to handling and managing change effectively. 2) The case is indeed a classic account of how emotional intelligence is used in the workplace given the manner in which the relationship between John and his environment changes after his skills on emotional intelligence. It is seen that John was indeed a good worker who performed his technical duties very well in the organization. However, his relationship with other people within the organization was not really impressive. Despite skills, the management at one time considered firing John due to his inability to relate effectively. In this case, the importance of emotional intelligence come into play and is actually the most important aspect in an individual. Without such knowledge, any other exemplary skills in an individual are basically reduced to nothing. In addition, without a fair share of emotional intelligence, an individual cannot realize their full potential since they do not relate well with other people. For instance John was more concerned about the result of his work and did not therefore care about the means of getting such results. While his performance was better, his relationship with other people was very poor as he did not care about the emotions of these people (Salovey, 67). In a typical organization, people must clearly understand one another and empathize effectively. Through emotional intelligence, John is able to relate well with other people in the organization and is actually one of the best employees. He becomes a mentor, a coach and many workers are able to look up to him. In addition, he is able to realize his full potential both within and outside the workplace. In this regard, the case is a classic account of how emotional intelligence is used in the workplace (Salovey, 95). 3) Emotional intelligence connotes the ability of an individual to understand and recognize their moods and behaviors and manage them effectively depending on the situation. In this case, emotional intelligence is much concerned with managing emotions and understanding how these emotions work in different people. Different emotions are normally realized in different situations and people should therefore have the competency to understand and manage these variations. On the other hand, emotional labour is a form of personal regulation in which organizational workers are expected to demonstrate certain types of emotional behaviors in order to promote the culture or goals of the organization. These emotions are normally directed on other target people who are different from the people who demonstrate them. Such target people will always include clients, co-workers and subordinates. Certain careers like nursing and acting are known to require a high degree of emotional labour. In order for emotional labour to exit, the individual must clearly regulate their emotions and balance them effectively depending on the situation. The intention in this regard is to have an influence on other people who are expected to get the message (Goleman & Boyatzis, 113). Emotional intelligence is normally viewed to be part of the personality of an individual and is therefore equated to traits like openness, general intelligence and extraversion. In this case, there are a variety of methods of measuring EQ. These methods are in the form of models which measure various aspects of the EQ of an individual. Works Cited Goleman, Daniel. Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2005. Print. Goleman, Daniel. Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2004. Print. Goleman, Daniel, Richard E. Boyatzis. Primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 2002. Print. Matthews, Gerald. Emotional intelligence: science and myth. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Print. Salovey, Peter. Emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Print. Read More