Emotional intelligence has been linked to life and workplace success. Discuss
Structure:
Brief introduction- What is Emotional intelligence? (20-30 words)
What are key elements of EI? (40-50 words)
How is EI linked to life and workplace success? (60-70 words)
Conclusion (20-30 words)
Supporting points:
Emotional intelligence or EI is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize emotional intelligence, there are five key elements to it:
Self-Awareness: It is the skill of being aware of and understanding one’s emotions as they occur and as they evolve.
Self-Regulation: It is about controlling one’s emotions i.e. instead of reacting quickly; one can reign in one’s emotions and thus will think before responding.
Internal Motivation: It includes one’s personal drive to improve and achieve commitment to one’s goals, initiative, or readiness to act on opportunities, and optimism and resilience.
Empathy: It is an awareness of the needs and feelings of others both individually and in groups, and being able to see things from the point of view of others.
Social Skills: It is applying empathy and balancing the wants and requirements of others with one’s. It includes building good rapport with others.
How is EI linked to life and workplace success?
Since workplace is about people and relationships and is also beset with challenges and contradictions, EI, therefore, becomes central to an efficient workplace in the following ways :
Negotiation- While dealing with stakeholders, one must be able to empathise and find a win-win situation. For ex. while framing a policy on environment or tribal rights, one is required to listen to tribal voices in order to chalk out a mutually agreed upon framework.
Peer Relationships- The workplace is multos homines mentis multis (many men many minds) and therefore, one is expected to maintain a good network for effective problem resolution. The recent initiative by the Niti Aayog to initiate dialogues between state governments and the central ministries on federal issues in a case in point.
Performance Management and Motivation-The propensity to work increase if the staff is motivated and receives timely feedback on its performance. This brings about a positive behavioural change and constructive attitude towards colleagues. This is applicable even at the organisational level.The emphasis of government on performance budgeting is an extension of EI at the highest levels of organisation.
Self-awareness and social skills-The acumen to manage both interpersonal skills and interpersonal skills is the underlying theme of EI. One is able to control disruptive impulses and is able to build efficient networks towards achieving the common organisational goals.The mid career training of bureaucrats is an exercise in this direction.
Conclusion:
EI, thus assists in building self-others and organisation. It is through the interplay of these entities can any system of administration function smoothly and efficiently.
