We are emotional. There is no getting around it. Basically, an electrical signal enters the brain, travels through the limbic system (feelings) to reach the area where rational thought occurs. Our thoughts and behaviors are impacted by our feelings.

Picture a street…signals go back and forth like cars. The higher your emotional intelligence, (a busier street) the more advanced your ability to handle situations. According to the authors, emotional intelligence is a skill that may be practiced and improved. They cite four skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.

“Personal competence is the result of your self-awareness and self-management skills.”
“Social competence is a result of your social awareness and relationship management skills.”

Understanding and leveraging emotional intelligence in the workplace is crucial for personal and organizational success. According to the authors, “most organizations perpetuate an environment that stifles emotional intelligence”. So what? This means that the 15% of workers that feel respected leave 85% of your workers that do not feel valued and would leave if they were presented a comparable job offer.

The authors found that emotional intelligence is more important to job performance than any other leadership skill. The higher the emotional intelligence scores in their test group, the more likely these folks would outperform their peers. The scary statistic is the significant drop in emotional intelligence the higher the job title (director and above). Why? These people are promoted based on what they know or how long they have worked, rather than their ability to manage others. Unfortunately, executive management is needed to lead others, yet upper management spends less time interacting with the people responsible for getting the work done. Therefore, emotional intelligence skills (whatever do exist) are not practiced and eventually become ineffective.