“The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way; they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but...they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions.”

This comment was made by Psychologist Daniel Goleman, the person who popularized the term Emotional intelligence, a concept that has crept its way into modern education, leadership, management, and even personal development.

Emotional intelligence is typically broken down into the following core competencies:

1. Self-awareness: Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions, your strengths and weaknesses, and to recognize the effect your actions, moods, and emotions on other people. Self-aware individuals also recognize the relationships between the things they feel and how they behave.

2. Self-management: Self-management, sometimes labelled self-regulation refers to the ability to regulate and manage your emotions, through selecting the right time and place to express them. Individuals who lack self-management tend to react without thinking and have a harder time keeping their impulses in check. The more in tune you are with your emotional intelligence, however, the easier you can make the transition from reaction to response, and the easier it will be to manage conflict and diffuse or tense situations.

3. Social awareness: Social awareness, sometimes called empathy, describes your ability to recognize others’ emotions and the dynamics in play within your organization, or group setting. Being empathetic – or having the ability to understand how others are feeling – is only the first step to social awareness. It goes a step further and includes your responses to people based on this information. When you sense that someone is feeling bad, depressed or disheartened, how do you respond? You might treat them with extra care and concern, or you might make an effort to lift their spirits.

4. Relationship management: Relationship management refers to your ability to influence, coach, and mentor others, and resolve conflict effectively. Some prefer to avoid conflict, but it is important to be able to properly address issues as they arise.

In light of these core areas, it is clear that EI allows you to understand and manage your emotions in order to self-motivate and to create positive social interactions, especially in the workplace, where if leaders lack EI it could lower employee engagement and create a higher turnover rate. Goleman explains that “If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.”

The following list itemizes some of the benefits of developing emotional intelligence in different spheres of life.

• Individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are less likely to succumb to the negative impacts of stressors, but are better able to deal with negative emotions and promote more positive emotions in its place, consequently allowing them to feel less stressed and anxious on a daily basis.

• When engaging in decision making, individuals are able to merge their intellect with emotional intelligence to make the most appropriate decision and or solution

• Utilizing and developing emotional intelligence in the workplace can greatly improve both job performance and the social capabilities of individuals within that workplace. This is enhanced if it is not just utilized by managers but lower-level workers, resulting in less conflicts in the work environments and ultimately a more positive and empathetic work space.

• Emotional Intelligence is a useful skill to prevent making decisions based on emotional or cultural biases and prejudices.

• The process of successful communication and negotiation are closely intertwined with high levels of emotional intelligence.

• It can contribute to the process of self-actualization, allowing the individual to unlock their best self and live a more fulfilling life.