Emotional Intelligence

• Emotions are feelings inside the person. They influence person’s reaction to events and  direct his/her attention to important events .

• They are biologically given and a result of evolution because they provided good solutions to ancient and recurring problems that faced our ancestors. Therefore, they are the essential constitute of human mind.

• There are 8 Basic Emotions 

All other emotions are combination of these emotions . For example: Happiness and Anticipation together results in Excitement.

• Emotions have positive side as well as negative side  
  • Negative : Emotions during stage performance  can result in “Stage Fright”. On the other hand, emotions such as hate can damage the relationships.
  • Positive : Emotions are important for survival. Humans live i groups due to the emotional bonds of love and care.

• Quote
  1. Anyone can become angry —that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way —this is not easy.  (Aristotle)
  2. When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with the creatures of emotion. (Dale Carnegie)
  3. Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him  In my heart’s core.  (Hamlet to his friend Horatio)

• According to Goleman, EI is the capacity to recognize our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and our relationships . (If asked in exam what is Emotional Intelligence, write this definition)

• Emotional Intelligence consist of two words
  • Emotions: Discussed above
  • Intelligence: Information processing ability of an individual
• Hence, Emotional Intelligence is ability to reason with emotions and use emotions in the reason
  • Reason with Emotions: Try to find the cause of emotion that is generated.
  • Use Emotions in Reasoning : Use emotions to facilitate thinking . Common perception is emotions block the ability of man to reason but person must use emotions to reason in better way.
• EI can be seen as head working with heart . It is unique intersection of both without overpowering other.

• In earlier philosophies, emotions were seen negatively and opposite to reason . It was advised to suppress or get rid of them  to enjoy the fruits of life. But now emotions are seen in different way. We have come to realise that , emotions are here to stay & we cant get rid of them . Hence, it is better to manage our emotions .

• It involves
  1. Identify & access (understand) your emotions
  2. Manage your emotions
  3. Identify  & access (understand) other’s emotions (like your wife or team member’s emotions)
  4. Manage their emotions

Hence, it involves not only managing your emotions but emotions of other’s as well.

Timeline

The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature  . Those who have high ability have high EI.

EI is calculated on basis of Four Abilities wrt Emotions

1 . Perceiving Emotions

• The ability to detect  emotions in faces , pictures & cultural artefacts  including the ability to identify one’s own emotions.
• All individuals have different ability to perceive emotions.
• Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of EI as without it any further action in this regard is not possible.

2 . Understanding Emotions

• The emotions that we perceive can carry wide variety of meanings. The observer must try to interpret cause of that emotion. One having more ability in this regard can interpret correctly the cause of emotion & vice versa.
• If someone is expressing angry emotion, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger & what it might mean.
• For example:  if your boss is  angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work or it could be because he got a speeding ticket or he might be fighting with his wife. One having high EI will have high ability to understand what is the cause.

3. Managing Emotions

• Emotional intelligence involves an ability to manage our own emotions and those of others. 
• People who are emotionally intelligent have an ability to amplify or restrain emotions, depending on the situation.

4. Using Emotions in thought

In thought process, persons use Emotions  to enhance thinking, decision-making, channelizing  emotions  for  constructive  purpose,  like  making appropriate  decision  or solving  some  problem.

Indian philosophical thought also speaks about Emotional Intelligence. Bhagavad Gita refers to  the  emotionally  intelligent  person  as  a ‘Sthithapragnya’ (the emotionally  stable  person).  A  ‘Sthithapragnya’,  according  to  Lord  Krishna  is  one  who remains  unperturbed  in  the  face  of  calamity,  and  takes  good  or evil  with  equanimity.  He has the  power to  emotionally  attach  or detach  from  any  situation,  at  his  will.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Measurement

• It is ratio of person’s mental age to chronological age
  • Above Average Intelligence = Mental Age > Chronological Age
  • Below Average Intelligence = Mental Age < Chronological Age
  • Average Intelligence = Mental Age = Chronological Age
• Formula to calculate IQ = Mental Age / Chronological Age X 100
  • 10 year old child who does as well as Average 10 year child has IQ of 100
  • 8 Year old child who does as good as 10 year child has IQ of 125
• If
  • IQ > 130 = Genius
  • IQ < 70 = Mentally Retarded. 

IQ vs EQ

• EQ is believed to be a better indicator of success at the workplace. People with high EQ usually make great leaders and team players because of their ability to understand, empathise, and connect with the people around them.  David Goleman in his book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why EI matters more than IQ’  has concluded that “The success of a person depends more on EI i.e. ability of person to manage emotions than IQ i.e. cognitive ability.” According to Goleman, success at workplace is about 80% or more dependent on EQ and about 20% or less dependent upon IQ.
• As a result, many persons, high on IQ, may not be successful in life, while contrary to this, most successful people are high on EQ.
• Intellectual intelligence (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to be successful in life. Ones IQ can get him into college, but it’s the Emotional Intelligence that manages the stress and emotions when facing final exams or during an interview. EQ, on the other hand, is the ability to effectively use IQ and all other potentialities that an individual possesses to the greatest advantage.
• Nobel Prize winning psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price. Hence, instead of exclusively focusing on conventional intelligence quotient, one should make an investment in strengthening his/her EQ (Emotional Intelligence).

To become good leader

• It was Daniel Goleman who established the  link between EQ and leadership. In leader-follower relationships, the leader is an  “emotional guide” who navigates the  course of uncertainty, threat, clarity, assurance and work.  It is also the fundamental task of leaders to create  resonance; resonance being “a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people”.
• Leadership is intrinsically an emotional process in which leader recognise follower’s emotional state , attempt to evoke emotions in followers and then seek to manage follower’s emotional state accordingly . Person with high emotional intelligence becomes a force multiplier, he can extract max work out of the team members – he knows how to motivate people. Gandhi became good leader because he had high EI. He know how to inspire people, how to rally them for freedom struggle , how people will react etc

To build better Relationships & become more acceptable

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ) will help person to work better because person will have more skills but EQ will help person to have better relationships. If you have high emotional intelligence, you can recognise your own emotional state and emotional state of others and engage people in a way that draws them near you. It will help person to be accepted by public . 

Channelize own emotions constructively

Since Emotions are here to stay so one cant get rid of them but one can channelize his/her emotions in constructive way. Unregulated emotions damage your mental and physical health.

• Depressed person may become suicidal
• Aggressive person may become insomniac.
• Unregulated Emotions leads to clouded judgements.

Negotiations

• Whether you are dealing with trading partner , competitor , customer or colleague , being able to empathise (put yourself in other’s shoe or thinking from other’s perspective) can be used to arrive at finding win-win solutions.  

Emerge from setbacks and depressions easily

• Improve your performance and help to pass through depressions & setbacks easily. Emotional Intelligence  can be used for internal motivation which can reduce procrastination , increase self-confidence and improve our ability to focus on goals. Along with that, it helps the person in leading a healthy life as accumulated and persistent stress leads to the various cardiovascular diseases.

Become more employable

• U.S.  Department of Labor conducted a survey  which looked at what employers were looking for in entry level positions.  The results showed that  the list was  dominated by emotional intelligence factors.

Social Harmony

• Emotional intelligent people can understand other outrage or outburst thus avoid violent conflict and preventing communal issue.

Use in Governance and Administration

• Dealt below

Gandhi

• Gandhi became good leader because he had high EI. He know how to inspire people, how to rally them for freedom struggle , how people will react, how to select symbols that will resonate with the common public etc.

Jawahar Lal Nehru

• During  the  seventeen years  he  was  the  Prime  Minister,  Nehru  strode  the  Indian  political stage  like  a  colossus.  But  he  never  imposed  his  political  will  and  always  had  an  ear  for what  others  had  to  say.  Though  not  in  favour  of  linguistic  states,  he  adhered  to  popular wishes.  He  did  not  choose  chief-ministers  but allowed  the  party  organisation  at  the state-levels to  elect  their  leaders.

Martin Luther King

• Some of the greatest moments in human history were fuelled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his dream, he chose language that would stir the hearts of his audience. He promised that a land “sweltering with the heat of oppression” could be “transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” Delivering this electrifying message required emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. Martin Luther King demonstrated remarkable skill in managing his own emotions and in sparking emotions that moved his audience to action. King delivered “a perfectly balanced outcry of reason and emotion, of anger and hope. His tone of pained indignation matched that note for note.”

Experiment 1: Marshmallow Experiment

• Experiment was conducted on 1,037 children who were born in single year of 1970s in Dunedin town of New Zealand.
• To know about the will power and ability to control the emotions of these children, psychologist Walter Mischel performed Marshmallow Test on them. He gave them choice between eating one marshmallow right away and getting two by waiting 15 minutes.
• Only 1/3rd of the children were able to resist for 15 minutes while 2/3rd took single marshmallow right away. Years later, when the children in the Dunedin study were in their 30s and all but 4% of them had been tracked down again, the researchers found that those who’d had the cognitive control to resist the marshmallow longest were significantly healthier, more successful financially, and more law-abiding than the ones who’d been unable to hold out at all.

All Governance is people governance and all service is public service . Relationships are the DNA of governance. If the public functionaries fail to develop trusting relationships with other people , there can be no governance.

• Guided by Max Weber’s idea on bureaucracy, it had been assumed that effectiveness and efficiency would be harmed if human emotions influence the rational actions of public administrators. Therefore , impersonality and de-humanisation were regarded as the specific virtues of bureaucracy because it was believed that they would remove the danger of irrational behaviour by individual bureaucrats and the organization as a whole.
• Likewise, FW Taylor’s Scientific Management Approach modelled on the idea of time and motion waste was primarily concerned with maximizing output and efficiency. Worker’s emotional issues like boredom, disaffection, frustration etc were dismissed as negligible terms.

Weber’s and Taylor’s ideas were substantial to the bureaucratic management for most of the last century.

However, in the second half of last century, the notion that the government and administrative processes might be improved by looking at the emotional content in the relational work rather than focussing solely on rationality and science came more and more to the forefront. One of the most prominent contributor in this direction was Elton Mayo who for the first time recognized that the formal organizational properties don’t satisfy the needs of the individuals and that the individual form informal groups . Through their Hawthorne studies , Elton Mayo et al. demonstrated that the most significant factor affecting organizational productivity was the inter-personal relationships developed on the job and not the pay and working conditions. Mayo saw the development of informal groups as an indictment of the society that treated human beings as insensitive machines and were concerned with only economic self interest. Mayo’s work resulted in human-relation movement in industry and it’s impact was felt in working of government and administrative machinery.

Mayo’s work was followed by the works of Mayer, Salovey and Goleman and their efforts resulted in the development of understanding that governance encompasses developing trusting relationships between the government and citizens . Hence, concept of Emotional Intelligence has become very valid .

It is increasingly being recognized that  public functionaries must know how to deal with circumstances that include emotions.   Administrative success and failure today is not based on technical proficiency alone but more so upon how effectively can Public Functionaries display their Emotional Intelligence skills to manage interactions with the people around them and as well as the public effectively.

EI helps Civil Servants to take correct decision in complex situations

• Indian Civil Servant works in complex situations like
  • Scarcity of public resources vis a vis expectations of public.
  • Unreasonable demands by different sections of society .
  • Political pressure on bureaucrats to deliver.
  • Pressure of media to act in public interest and to meet targets timely even when resources arent sufficient.
  • Handling of mass protest and riot like situation.
  • Management of subordinates.
  • Blatant use of ‘transfers’, ‘postings’ and ‘extensions’.
  • Public agitation

In these situations person must hold his nerves and control his emotions and shouldn’t lose temperament. This is possible using Emotional Intelligence.

Managing work family conflict

• We have observed that Civil Servants are not able to balance their professional and personal life and even go to extend of committing suicide. EI is the way out in this regard.

Helps administrator to become better leader

• Emotionally intelligent administrator will be a better leader because he has ability to
  • Enroll people into his vision (both people and his workforce).
  • Understand & empathise with different positions
• It improves social capital. Social capital refers to the bonds of mutual respect and care among the members of the collective . EI allows up for building up of Social Capital with Peers, Media, Citizens, Superiors, Subordinates, General Public and other stakeholders .

Use of EI in Crowd Management

• When person is charged with emotion after particular incident , he will be at the lowest level of his reasoning eg after Riot against particular community, people of that community will get emotionally charged with anger and may try to kill others. At this time , it is the emotion of anger that is driving them and not reason. Civil Servant placed to control at this situation will have to manage the Emotions of Crowd instead of going into reason .

Cognitive  intelligence  (IQ) does not change with  age or  experience.  However, with  EQ, this is not the case.  Emotional competencies are learned and can be taught.  The mastery of EQ skills evolve over a lifelong growth.

• Emotional  quotient  is best  inculcated  from  an  early  age  by  encouraging  qualities  like  sharing, thinking  about  others,  putting  oneself  in  another  person’s  shoes,  giving  individual  space  and the  general  principles  of  cooperation.  There  are  tools  like  toys  and  games  available  to improve emotional  quotient,  and  children  who  do  not  do  well  in  social  settings  are  known  to  perform significantly  better  after  taking  SEL  (Social  and  Emotional  Learning)  classes.
• Using  Yoga: Person can take help of exercise such as control over breathing to increase self awareness and self management.
• Person should be open to the inputs from others.
• Make groups where they can freely tell each other what they feel as we can’t know who we are until we hear our self speaking the story of life to whom we trust.
• Emotional literacy: Person should improve his emotional literacy because if person can’t label his emotional state correctly, he can’t manage his emotions.
• Non-verbal communication: Person should learn to interpret non-verbal communication such as facial and body gestures.
• Develop empathy

Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence

• Leaders can use emotionally surcharged speeches to rob the capacity of person to reason and use people to achieve their nefarious goals. For Example: Hitler who used his emotionally surcharged speeches to encourage common germans to attack and kill Jews.
• Person can use Emotional Intelligence to disguise his/her true feelings.
• Person with high EQ can also use his capability to manipulate others.
• In the jobs with low emotional demands, high EQ can prove to be liability rather than asset. Eg: Mechanics, Accountants etc.

But it has to be accepted that people  aren’t  always  using  emotional intelligence  for  nefarious  ends.  More  often  than  not,  emotional  skills  are  simply  instrumental tools for goal accomplishment.

1. What  is  ‘emotional  intelligence’  and  how  can  it  be  developed  in  people?  How  does  it  help an  individual in  taking  ethical decisions?  ( 2013 )
2. Anger  is  a  harmful  negative  emotion.  It  is  injurious  to  both  personal life  and  work  life. 
   1. Discuss  how  it  leads  to  negative  emotions  and  undesirable  behaviours. 
   2. How  can  it  be managed and  controlled?  ( 2016 )
3. How will  you  apply  emotional intelligence  in  administrative  practices?  (2017)
4. “Anger  and  intolerance  are  the  enemies  of  correct  understanding.  “Mahatma Gandhi  ( 2018 )
5. Emotional  Intelligence  is  the  ability  to  make  your  emotions  work  for  you  instead  of against  you”.  Do  you  agree  with  this  view?  Discuss. ( 2019)

1. A  private  company  is  known  for  its  efficiency,  transparency  and  employee  welfare.  The company  though  owned  by  a  private  individual  has  a  cooperative  character  where employees  feel  a  sense  of  ownership.  The  company  employs  nearly  700  personnel  and  they have  voluntarily  decided  not  to  form  union.  One  day  suddenly  in  the  morning,  about  40 men  belonging  to  political  party  gate  crashed  into  the  factory  demanding  jobs  in  the factory.  They  threatened  the  management  and  employees,  and  also  used  foul  language. The  employees  feel demoralized.  It  was  clear  that  those  people  who  gate crashed  wanted to  be  on  the  payroll  of  the  company  as  well  as  continue  as  the  volunteers/members  of  the party.  The  company  maintains  high  standards  in  integrity  and  does  not  extend  favours  to civil  administration  that  also  includes  law  enforcement  agency. Such  incident  occur  in public  sector also. (20  Marks)  (250  Words)
   1. Assume  you  are  the  CEO  of  the  company.  What  would  you  do  to  diffuse  the  volatile situation  on  the  date  of  gate  crashing  with  the  violent  mob  sitting  inside  the  company premises?
   2. What  can  be  the long  term  solution  to  the  issue discussed in  the  case?
   3. Every  solution/action  that  you  suggest  will  have  a  negative  and  a  positive  impact  on  you as (CEO), the  employees and  the  performance  of the  employees. Analyse  the  consequences of each of  your suggested  actions.