EPISODE 704: Emotional Intelligence is Almost Magic!
What else can you do to improve your career and your life? What’s the one skill that could possibly be eluding you that’s a game changer if you increase it? What skill is almost magic? It’s Emotional Intelligence or EQ.
Our capacity to perform in life consists of three main areas in our brain – our IQ, our personality, and our EQ.
We can’t change our IQ. We are as smart as we are, and we have that ability set from birth. Your intelligence is your capacity to learn. We can and do learn more throughout life and our intelligence to learn is fixed.
Our personality is also stable over our lifetime. You can be an introvert or an extrovert at various spots on that scale and while we can, and do, push ourselves to be more outgoing or quieter depending on our tendencies and the situations we find ourselves in, it’s always a conscious decision and we have to push different behavior that’s outside our personality a bit to keep it front and center.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Our EQ or Emotional Intelligence can be improved by a simple assessment: understanding the four skills involved in Emotional Intelligence, and following clearly laid out strategies for areas that need improvement . There’s no connection between IQ, personality, and EQ.
While most people have heard of Emotional Intelligence, many of us don’t really understand what it is or that it can be made better. At the basic level, it’s our capacity to recognize and manage emotions in ourselves and others.
The four skills are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management. They all intertwine, and a person can score high in a couple of areas while needing substantial improvement in others.
Check out these stats on the beauty of Emotional Intelligence:
o 90% of high career performers have high emotional intelligence.
o 58% of performance in job success in any type of job hinges on emotional intelligence.
o Every percentage point increase in Emotional Intelligence equals a $1300 wage increase on average annually. That can add up to a lot of money over your career.
Emotional Intelligence really is the Holy Grail to success. Mastering the four skills unlocks the keys to the kingdom. One book I highly recommend is Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves’s classic on the subject, Emotional Intelligence, 2.0. You can purchase this online or at bookstores, and make sure you get a new copy. The assessment key in the book can’t be reused, and I once had to buy three copies to get a new one even though they all said they were unused. People buy them and resell them under false pretenses.
I use Emotional Intelligence training extensively in my coaching. I study and revisit the book on the regular and keep it deskside. If you would like some support in your current job or in your next career steps and your Emotional Intelligence, reach out to me at brenda@brendaholley.com for a free 30-minute consult.
