What is emotional intelligence?

In a rustic office with exposed red brick walls and vintage pallet wood paneling, Gemma stands in front of a work desk with a laptop. Understanding and developing your emotional intelligence is essential if you want to successfully progress in your career. Not only will you reap the rewards personally by enhancing your performance, but you'll also foster strong relationships with others, helping you to collectively achieve more. So let's start at the beginning. What exactly do we mean by emotional intelligence? A white slide is titled Defining Emotional Intelligence. Well, when we talk about emotional intelligence, we're really focusing on two areas. Bullet points appear underneath. The first is understanding and expressing emotions. Understanding and expressing our emotions. Another bullet point, using empathy. And being empathetic when communicating with others. A red graphic of a brain appears in the center of a white slide. It reads psychological makeup. A line connects it to a narrow green rectangle that reads emotional intelligence. The second thing you need to know is emotional intelligence is part of our psychological makeup. Two more rectangles appear, a purple one reading personality and an orange one reading I.Q. Along with our personalities and I.Q. which is a measure of general intelligence. These three elements make us who we are and they determine how we interact with others. We return to the instructor. We all use each of these three elements to varying degrees. And research has shown personality and I.Q. don't predict emotional intelligence. In fact, all three elements operate independently, interacting together to help us solve problems and make decisions. So whatever personality type you are or whatever your I.Q. score, you have the ability to be high on the emotional intelligence scale. Why this is so interesting is because, generally speaking, personality and I.Q. are fairly fixed. They don't move a great deal throughout your adult life. This is not the case with emotional intelligence, however. A white slide reads, you can develop your emotional intelligence in black text. You can enhance and grow your emotional intelligence, which will have a direct impact on your performance and personal achievements and on the relationships you build. We return to the instructor. It's just a case of learning and practicing the skills. A white slide reads E.Q. equals emotional quotient. Emotional intelligence is sometimes known as E.Q. which stands for emotional quotient. To help explain why we use the terminology E.Q. consider the phrase I.Q. More text appears underneath. I.Q. equals intelligence quotient. Which is the measure of general intelligence. Quite simply, E.Q. is the emotional version of general intelligence. We return to the instructor. Why does I.Q. measures a person's reasoning ability and how they use information and logic to answer questions? The measurement of emotional intelligence is completely different. A white slide is titled Measuring E.Q. in black text. Measuring emotional intelligence focuses on four criteria. Bullet points appear underneath. The first reads being aware of emotions. Firstly, being aware of emotions. Secondly, Another bullet point, expressing emotions. Expressing emotions. Thirdly, Another bullet point, controlling emotions. Controlling your emotions. And finally, Another bullet point, relationship management. Handling relationships with others effectively. On a white slide, a flowchart appears, a blue square reads areas of E.Q. in white text. Four rectangles of various colors flow from it. A green one reads self-awareness, a yellow one reads self-management, a purple one reads social awareness, and a gray one reads relationship development. There are four areas of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship development. What you'll notice is the first two parts look inwards, focusing on yourself. Firstly, understanding your emotions and then learning to manage them. The second two parts are outward facing, so being aware of social situations and then managing and developing relationships. We return to the instructor. Take a moment to think about your emotional intelligence. How have you used your emotional intelligence in a work situation? Are there areas you could improve? I'd like you to start considering how you think about and react to situations and the changes you'd like to see.