Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence has become a very popular topic that, unfortunately, suffers from the problem that almost all trendy concepts encounter.  Its meaning and measurement have become very confusing and ambiguous.  One way to clarify this problem is to differentiate between emotional intelligence and emotional competence.

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to diagnose, understand, and manage emotional cues.  Emotional competence refers to the noncognitive capabilities and skills, including social skills, which affect human functioning.  These noncognitive skills and abilities are, in fact, among the most important factors in explaining why some people succeed as leaders and managers and others do not.

Emotionally intelligent people are able to get in touch with and accurately diagnose their own internal feelings.  Emotionally intelligent people are able to regulate and control their emotions.  Emotionally intelligent people are also able to accurately diagnose and empathize with the feelings of others.

In a worldwide study of what companies were looking for in hiring new employees, 67 percent of the most desired attributes were emotional intelligence competencies (Goleman et al., 2002).