Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence for Leadership Development

Presented by Marcus Brooks, Head Nerd In Charge, Let's Brainstorm, LLC

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (often referred as EQ) is defined as “a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way” (Bar-On, 2006). Emotional intelligence as defined here and applied in the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0) reflects one’s overall well-being and ability to succeed in life.

While emotional intelligence isn’t the sole predictor of human performance and development potential, it is proven to be a key indicator in these areas. Emotional intelligence is also not a static factor - to the contrary, one’s emotional intelligence can change over time and can be developed in targeted areas.

The EQ-i 2.0 Model

Developed by renowned EQ researcher Reuven Bar-On, the EQ-i 2.0 measures the interaction between a person and the environment he/she operates in. Assessing and evaluating an individual’s emotional intelligence can help establish the need for targeted development programs and measures. This, in turn, can lead to dramatic increases in the person’s performance, interaction with others, and leadership potential.

The EQ-I 2.0 clusters 15 key emotional intelligence practices into five major behavioral composites: Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making, and Stress Management.

Self-Perception

• Self-Regard is respecting oneself while understanding and accepting one’s strengths and weaknesses. Self-Regard is often associated with feelings of inner strength and self-confidence.
• Self-Actualization is the willingness to persistently try to improve oneself and engage in the pursuit of personally relevant and meaningful objectives that lead to a rich and enjoyable life.
• Emotional Self-Awareness includes recognizing and understanding one’s own emotions. This includes the ability to differentiate between subtleties in one’s own emotions while understanding the cause of these emotions and the impact they have on the thoughts and actions of oneself and others.

Self-Expression

• Emotional Expression is openly expressing one’s feelings verbally and non-verbally.
• Assertiveness involves communicating feelings, beliefs and thoughts openly, and defending personal rights and values in a socially acceptable, non-offensive, and non-destructive manner.
• Independence is the ability to be self-directed and free from emotional dependency on others. Decision-making, planning, and daily tasks are completed autonomously.

Interpersonal

• Interpersonal Relationships refers to the skill of developing and maintaining mutually satisfying relationships that are characterized by trust and compassion.
• Empathy is recognizing, understanding, and appreciating how other people feel. Empathy involves being able to articulate your understanding of another’s perspective and behaving in a way that respects others’ feelings.
• Social Responsibility is willingly contributing to society, to one’s social groups, and generally to the welfare of others. Social responsibility involves acting responsibly, having social consciousness, and showing concern for the greater community.

Decision Making

• Problem Solving is the ability to find solutions to problems in situations where emotions are involved. Problem solving includes the ability to understand how emotions impact decision making.
• Reality Testing is the capacity to remain objective by seeing things as they really are. This capacity involves recognizing when emotions or personal bias can cause one to be less objective.
• Impulse Control is the ability to resist or delay an impulse, drive or temptation to act and involves avoiding rash behaviors and decision making.

Stress Management

• Flexibility is adapting emotions, thoughts and behaviors to unfamiliar, unpredictable, and dynamic circumstances or ideas.
• Stress Tolerance involves coping with stressful or difficult situations and believing that one can manage or influence situations in a positive manner.
• Optimism is an indicator of one’s positive attitude and outlook on life. It involves remaining hopeful and resilient, despite occasional setbacks.

 

Marcus’ Approach to Assisting Participants in Developing Their Emotional Intelligence

Our emotional intelligence process begins by having participants complete the EQ-i 2.0 and the Leadership EQ 360 online assessments (which is highly recommended, yet not required). This combined self and others approach provides the most comprehensive view of an individual’s EQ results as seen through the individual’s self-perception leadership lens, as well as understand how others see the person’s EQ display as a leader.

Once the results are received, Marcus will schedule a session with the individual participants to take an in-depth look at the EQ-I 2.0 model, each leader’s reports, and the personal results. Great attention is paid to exploring how each of the composite subscales affects the participant's effectiveness at the individual and group level.

In this course, participants will identify the areas in which they wish to improve upon, establish clear developmental goals, and outline the strategies and steps for action to get there.

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