Reviewing Emotional Intelligence Competencies
Introduction
Emotional intelligence first emerged in 1995. EQ is formerly defined as a person’s ability to monitor one’s emotions and feelings, distinguish each of them, and use this acquired knowledge to act and think appropriately (Otuedon, 2016). One scholar Daniel Goleman is greatly attributed to popularizing EQ and maintaining that it is an actual concept as it is a leading factor in determining a person’s success at the individual and professional levels. According to Goleman, Emotional Quotient (EQ) exhibits five concepts, which are further split into four core quadrants (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Each section is further divided to make two pairs related to personal or social competence. Individual skill is constructed by self-management and self-awareness. On the other hand, social competency comprises relationship management and social awareness. Therefore, to establish that a person is adequately competent in each of the five concepts, one should exhibit several characteristics to determine whether one is sufficiently qualified.
However, it is crucial to take a SWOT analysis to evaluate if one is competent or has developed adequately in EQ concepts. Considerably, this analytical model is sometimes complicated but is very significant in determining a person’s personal progress in any field. In fact, taking a SWOT analysis helps an individual in finding one’s career direction and life (Taylor, 2016). Particularly, through this model, a person realizes his/her strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Therefore, it is imperative to analyze the core concepts of emotional intelligence and conduct a personal SWOT analysis when taking a course in EQ.
EQ Theory Review
Emotional Awareness
Competency in emotional awareness enables people to recognize their feelings and weigh how much their emotions impact others (Otuedon, 2016). There are three core competencies associated with emotional awareness: emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence. Emotional awareness enables a person to make thoughtful conversations, be courteous, and continuously builds trusted relationships. Consequently, self-assessment allows a person to welcome feedback, provides space for new ideas, take into consideration the intensity of their words to ensure growth rather than destruction, and work through experience (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Lastly, self-confidence competency ensures that a person has well-defined communication strategies, realistically approaches problems, designs and implements change, and makes informed decisions.
Self-Management
Indeed, being adequate and self-managed means one’s internal state, resources, and impulses are on point (Otuedon, 2016). Due to self-management, a person can have self-control, works with transparency, and is adaptable to all situations. Through self-control, people manage their personal feelings, maintain positivity, and remain focused despite pressure. Transparency is mainly measured through honesty or integrity as individuals can uphold ethical practices, build trusted relationships, take responsibility for their mistakes, and defend their principles (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Still, adaptability is nurtured by efficiently handling multiple tasks, responding to befitting tactics for every circumstance, and taking every event.
Social Awareness
Well-developed social awareness skills enable a person to adequately recognize the people around and use appropriate verbal and non-verbal cues to communicate with them (Otuedon, 2016). The concept has three major competencies: conscientiousness, self-orientation, organizational awareness, and empathy. Empathy allows a person to maintain attentiveness, show sensitivity, and lend a helping hand whenever another person needs assistance. Being self-oriented ensures that individuals serve other people’s needs through understanding them, assisting as required, designing ways of increasing client’s satisfaction, and making trusted counselor. Organizational awareness enables people to develop others through learning their strengths and weaknesses, offering useful feedbacks on performance, and mentoring others (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Conscientiousness is substantially associated with commitments, accountability, and organizing capabilities.
Relationship Management
According to EQ, relationship management is an ability to induce the desirable responses in other people (Otuedon, 2016). People with relationship management competencies are influential change catalysts, they manage conflicts and encourage rapport. Their influence enables them to persuade, make elegant presentations, build a consensus, and communicate their points effectively. As change catalyst, they recognize, initiate, challenge organizational structuring, implement, and act as models for others. Consequently, their conflict management strategies are informed to handle difficult individuals tactfully, recognize potential problems, encourage, and arbitrate using the right resolution procedures (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Encouraging rapport ensures that people collaborate and cooperate to achieve one goal.
Self-Motivation
According to EQ, being self-motivated involves nurturing personal emotions through controlling them to reach particular goals (Otuedon, 2016). Competing in self-motivation requires achievement drive, commitment, initiative, and optimism. A drive to achieve is seen through setting goals, improving performances, researching, and living a result oriented life. Commitment reflects through making sacrifices, designing larger missions, making decisions by the group’s values, and seeking ways of fulfilling particular objectives. An initiative person always seizes opportunities, actively pursues goals, bends the rules to get a job done, and mobilize others into completing a task successfully (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001). Their optimism is seen through persistence, the hope of succeeding, and taking challenges positively.
Personal SWOT
Strengths
Understanding EQ, allows a manager to exhibit abilities of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and self-motivation skills. EQ is not new to most students as some serve as elected managers in their residential homes during their college life. Successful completion of an EQ course is greatly facilitated by the availability of resources in learning institutions where they are trained, get experience through school-based activities, and ensure to undertake regular assessments to determine their knowledge levels. Moreover, most colleges have specialized EQ course instructors who are at the student’s disposal to offer mentorship and advice to them. The EQ course is essential as it is attributed to excellent performances, maintained physical and mental health, and well-nurtured relationships. However, in most cases, successful managerial students are top performers with great motivation and leaders who champion productivity and rapport among peers (Chan, 2005). Intrapersonal intelligence preferences are also associated with successful attainment of EQ skills as this learning method leads a learner into setting realistic goals, embracing opportunities, and nurturing a reflective student.
Weaknesses
Managerial students with EQ skills often face limitations of poor experience in their course of preference. In addition, learners often set unrealistic goals, leading them to become disappointed if not met and are poor at resolving conflicts in the social context. On the other hand, the pressure to perform and uncertainty adversely affects students’ ability to manage their stress levels, especially when socially and academically anxious. Learners are also faced with major setbacks in financial issues as most of them depend on their kin or odd jobs to meet their everyday needs thus inhibiting them from advancing academically. Moreover, when a student is an introvert and lacks socialization skills, the chances of networking and expanding both academically and professionally are limited. As such, the intrapersonal reasonable preference limits such students from joining discussion groups and soliciting for new information (McLeod, 2016). Therefore, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, students have deficiencies in safety, especially in financial needs and a missing sense of well-being due to their poor socialization skills with peers,
Opportunities
College level students have opportunities of advancing their education to attain a degree in EQ related courses. Moreover, improved social interaction is a niche, opening up networks that lead to well-paying jobs and economic empowerment. In addition, managerial graduates with EQ competencies have opportunities in non-governmental organizations where they can deal with people from all demographics, a platform that allows them to excel and explore their skills. Considering that most EQ students are top performers, it is possible to have them take up senior management positions, write journals or scholarly articles for academic use, and get bursaries since they have outstanding talents in any field encompassing EQ competencies.
Threats
Accessing managerial positions is a guarantee to all graduates with EQ skills. However, it is not possible for them to attain well-paying jobs as they lack experience in their courses. Indeed, the result is juggling two jobs to cover all expenses incurred fully. That means that such learners cannot explore their entire potential fully as their time is divided between the management profession and another part-time job. On the other hand, jobs offering the right experience require graduates to undergo internship phases, which are tedious, poorly paying, and limit one’s time for socializing with new people and networking to find any possible job opportunity. However, although there are such threats in managing students with EQ competencies, such learners eventually become successful as they have excellent leadership styles, are motivated, and have an intense knowledge in driving their profession to greater heights.
Conclusion
The above discussion has shown that emotional intelligence includes core concepts and requires understanding and nurturing the factors that construct its quadrants. This debate reviews emotional awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and social motivation. Emotional awareness has established that one becomes competent through having adequate self-confidence, accurate self-assessment, and emotional awareness. On the other hand, adequate self-management is exhibited through self-control, transparency, and adaptability. As per social awareness, an individual becomes competent in conscientiousness, organizational awareness, empathy, and self-orientation. Subsequently, the relationship management concept requires one to show that they are a relevant change catalyst, conflict managers, facilitators of rapport, and are influential. Lastly, self-motivation is exhibited through an achievement drive, being inventive, optimistic, and committed.
On the SWOT analysis model, it is clear that managerial students with EQ competencies have a variety of strengths. In fact, they include leadership abilities, motivation, excellence in intelligent intrapersonal preferences, adequate resources, and mentorship. However, there are weaknesses which include poor experience, setting unrealistic goals, poor conflict resolution strategies, little stress management levels, financial constraints, and lack of socialization skills. However, they have opportunities to advance higher education, excelling through nurturing connections, gaining from NGO institutions, publishing scholarly articles, attaining excellent professional positions, and getting scholarships for their exemplary performances. On the other hand, some threats come in the form of inadequate economic empowerment due to the inadequate professional attainment and juggling jobs, thus limiting students from fully exploring their potential. While internships remain EQ competency threats since they are tedious, have little remuneration to the graduates, and inhibit them from socializing for the core purpose of networking.
References
Chan, D. W. (2005). Perceived multiple intelligences and learning preferences among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29(2), 187-212.
Cherniss, C. & Goleman, D. (2001). Bringing emotional intelligence to the workplace. New Brunswick, NJ: Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.1-385.
McLeod, S. A. (2016). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.
Otuedon, U, M. (2016). Emotions, personality, emotional intelligence and leadership in the workplace: The prevailing attitude. International Journal of Economics, Commerce, and Management, 4(3), 350-368.
Taylor, F. N. (2016). SWOT analysis: What it is and when to use it. Business News Daily. Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4245-swot-analysis.html.
