Emotional intelligence for project teams

- When you hear that someone has a high IQ, what does that mean? We usually think about intelligence in terms of cognitive abilities, like solving math problems or having a big vocabulary. But when we interact with other people, there's another kind of intelligence that's really important. That's our emotional quotient, or EQ. Emotional intelligence is about recognizing and controlling our own emotions and understanding and influencing the emotions of others. One of the most prominent authorities on emotional intelligence is Daniel Goleman, and he breaks it down into four main elements. First, self-awareness, which is about knowing who you are, identifying your strengths, your weaknesses, and your personal values. Next is self-regulation, which is the ability to control how you respond to a situation, keeping yourself from responding in negative ways or in destructive ways. Then social awareness, which includes empathy, understanding how other people feel and why they feel that way. And the last, relationship management, which involves building relationships with other people and knowing how to maintain healthy relationships. We all know that intelligence is importance, especially in technical jobs, but there's a lot of evidence that indicates emotional intelligence is the best predictor of career success. So the higher up you move in an organization, the more important your EQ becomes. And I'd argue that EQ is really important for project managers too because emotions and relationship issues are part of what we need to deal with any time we lead a team. If you're interested in learning more about emotional intelligence and increasing your own EQ, check out Daniel Goleman's work here in the learning library and look for his books and articles. What's really interesting about the four elements of emotional intelligence is that they're all areas in which each of us can get better. No matter how old we are, through study and practice, we can always increase our emotional intelligence.