What Is Emotional Intelligence And Why Is It Important?

Herbert Huffner

3 years ago

Emotional Intelligence (EI) Is One Of The Topics That Has Found Many Applications In The Last Two Or Three Decades, And You Will Rarely Find A Book Article Or Lecture In The Fields Of Psychology, Management, Marketing, And Human Resources That Has Not Been Mentioned This Topic In Any Way.

At the same time, as the term is widely used, understanding what emotional intelligence really is is rare.

Why are you sad…

The working day is coming to an end, and you are still sad. You do not know the reason. This vague feeling of sadness has come to you around noon. Nothing unpleasant happened to justify the grief. One or two co-workers ask for the reason, but in your opinion, nothing special has happened.

An unpleasant atmosphere is created around the workplace. It says something inside you that a job is missing, But this is just a vague feeling.

You do not even know exactly whether you are sad, worried, anxious, or angry. When he leaves, the company’s head comes to your room and angrily says that he has been waiting for an answer since noon. Answer?

Which question?

The manager says that he sent you a message around noon saying that the board is dissatisfied with the performance of the marketing department and wants to find out the reason for the poor results; You remember seeing it in the message box, but immediately the phone rang, and you got into a conversation and then a marketer meeting to come up with new ways to deal with the Coronavirus sales slump.

As the director of marketing, you have so many phone and face-to-face visits and meetings that you will not return to that message. But all evening, without your knowledge, your mind was involved. Suddenly the cause of sadness or that vague unpleasant feeling appears.

The possibility of board reprimands, stressful meetings, gratitude, job changes and loss of managerial benefits, and even dismissal or resignation, were all topics that occupied your mind all afternoon without your knowledge.

As the director of marketing, you have so many phone and face-to-face visits and meetings that you will not return to that message. But all evening, without your knowledge, your mind was involved.

Suddenly the cause of grief or that vague unpleasant feeling appears.

The above example shows how emotions affect people’s appearance in their decisions and behavior.

Was the marketing manager worried about reprimanding the board?

Or maybe he was worried about the reaction of some of his colleagues in the marketing department after hearing this news? By ignoring the manager’s message, as he is subconsciously trying to delay dealing with the incident, or was it stubbornness in dealing with the manager?

Whatever it was, their gender was Feelings and Emotions, where emotional intelligence comes into play.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one of the topics that has found many applications in the last two or three decades, and you rarely see an article, book, or lecture in the fields of psychology, management, marketing, and human resources that has not been mentioned this topic in any way. At the same time, as the term is widely used, understanding what emotional intelligence really is is rare.

I was not enough …

IQ (Intelligence Quotient) was the basis of many assessments for choosing a field of study or hiring staff for a long time. But several thinkers and experts in the humanities did not consider IQ to be sufficient to know a person.

They believed that IQ was only a measure of a person’s general intelligence, regardless of their feelings and emotions; So much so that in reality, many people with high IQs were not able to recognize and manage their own and others’ feelings and emotions, and appeared to be extremely weak in interpersonal and social interactions and job situations.

They did not have a very high IQ, but they did have great success in social interactions and work situations.

Gradually, many professionals and even managers of large organizations realized that high IQ does not necessarily mean better performance or career success.

Companies and organizations that recruited many employees each year wanted to know what skills they need and the intelligence to hire the person they hire to cope with the different situations that occur in the workplace every day.

They wanted to know how well the employee they hired could manage their emotions in dealing with others in the workplace. If confronted with a senior manager, is he able to manage himself and the situation or not?

Can it motivate itself to progress at work and maintain that motivation in the long run and pass it on to others?

Questions like these have led humanities professionals, especially psychologists, to think of ways to delve deeper than IQ into a person’s emotions and provide a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of a person’s personality. If confronted with a senior manager, is he able to manage himself and the situation or not?

Can it motivate itself to progress at work and maintain that motivation in the long run and pass it on to others?

EI comes on …

One of the first to raise the issue of Social Intelligence in the early twentieth century was Edward Thorndike, a prominent American psychologist. He believed that social intelligence meant understanding the motivations of one’s own behavior and others and using that understanding in interpersonal and social relationships.

Although the subject of emotional intelligence has been associated with Daniel Goleman for more than two decades, there have been thinkers before him who have dealt with it scientifically.

Among them are Peter Salovey and John Mayer.

Before Gelman, they did valuable research on emotional intelligence, its differences from general intelligence, and its neurological fields. Those interested in these topics can refer to Mayer and Salvi’s 1993 article on emotional intelligence.

In this regard, as in other articles in this series such as problem-solving skills, creativity, critical thinking, cognitive flexibility, and management skills of others, my goal is not to define the subject accurately and comprehensively, but the main purpose is to get acquainted with these concepts and show their applications.

It is for specialists and students of technical fields.

Because the basic principle on which this series of articles is based is that just having technical expertise and skills in today’s world is not enough. Employees or job seekers in technical fields should learn the basic soft skills for work and life.

Fortunately, emotional intelligence is one of those topics that has become popular, and we may not need to be too involved in the formal definition of thinkers in this field.

There are many books and articles in this field only in Persian.

But to make sure that both sides of the relationship have a similar definition, I will try to base the discussion on Daniel Gelman’s definition.

In his definition, Gelman defines emotional intelligence as the set of abilities and skills with which we recognize, regulate, and use our emotions and feelings in our relationships with others.

According to this definition, self-awareness, which means knowing oneself, one’s feelings and emotions, and their origin, can be considered one of the most important components of emotional intelligence.

Readers familiar with my writing know that I have mentioned focus, presence, presence of mind, and flow experience on various occasions.

Although these concepts are different, they can be considered one of the most important components of emotional intelligence in this discussion.

Flow Experience, also known as drowning, focuses as much attention as possible on a challenging subject while having the skill to solve the problem and the passion for solving the problem. Such a situation usually leads to a kind of psychological pleasure that is not found in normal life.

This experience usually leads to the best possible functioning of the mind.

Of course, I do not mean that you should be in a state of flux in all the situations you are involved in on a daily, I want to point out that if you do not look inside yourself with enough focus and accuracy, you will not be able to deepen your feelings and emotions. And find out its roots.

Also, if you do not have high concentration and accuracy, you can not understand the feelings and emotions of others and adjust your feelings and emotions and behavior with them.

But focusing on your emotions is only part of the self-awareness that emotional intelligence requires. The other dimension is the order that must exist in our minds and work.

In the past, in explaining other soft skills, I have often said that without this discipline, we would not have any great long-term work.

This discipline, combined with self-awareness, allows us to think of solutions to many of our weaknesses and make the most of our strengths without suffering from stress and anxiety. Imagine being invited to a business party at 4 pm on Monday.

You are supposed to talk for a few minutes at this party.

If, as is the habit of many of us Iranians, half an hour before the start, you think about going to a party and gather something to talk about along the way, you will most likely get into trouble.

Because not all the city agents are at your disposal, the slightest change in route, unusual traffic, or a two-car crash can ruin your entire program (?).

This is where the emotions come in: the stress of not having time and the unpleasant things that can happen, the anxiety about how the hosts will react and the clutter of the lectures, worrying about your personality and work, blaming yourself for being on time When you are not ready for this event, a strong emotional but unsupported decision that I will no longer be such an unplanned person will invade your mind.

It can say with confidence that this situation will not yield a positive result.

But if you had prepared yourself for such an event the day before, prepared a text or a list of topics for your speech, moved on time, and proceeded according to the event schedule, you would certainly not have had any unpleasant feelings.

It can say with confidence that this situation will not yield a positive result.

Stress, lack of time and unpleasant events that may occur, anxiety about how the hosts will behave and disrupt the lecture schedule, worries about your personality and work, blaming yourself for not being prepared in time for this event, an emotional but unsupported decision. The thought that I will no longer be so unplanned will invade your mind.

It can say with confidence that this situation will not yield a positive result.

The thought that I will no longer be so unplanned will invade your mind.

It can say

with confidence that this situation will not yield a positive result. But if you had prepared yourself for such an event in the previous days, prepared a text or a list of topics for your speech, moved on time, and proceeded according to the event schedule, you would certainly not have experienced any unpleasant feelings.

It can say

with confidence that this situation will not yield a positive result. But if you had prepared yourself for such an event the day before, prepared a text or a list of topics for your speech, moved on time, and proceeded according to the event schedule, you would certainly not have had any unpleasant feelings.