Emotional Intelligence By : Samantha Ng

According to Howard Gardner, the influential Harvard theorist, EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, know what motivates them, and how to work cooperatively with them. In other words, emotional intelligence refers to an ability to recognize the meaning of emotions and their relationships, as well as to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. There are three major categories of emotional intelligence that are of value to human beings. Firstly, self-awareness by definition means the ability to recognize an emotion as it happens. Developing self-awareness requires tuning in our true feelings. If we evaluate our emotions, we can manage them. Self-awareness comprises of emotional-awareness that is our ability to recognize our emotions and their effects, and self-confidence, the sureness of our self-worth and capabilities. The second category is empathy. What does it mean by empathy? Empathy is the ability to recognize how people feel. This ability is crucial for success in our lives and career. The more skillful we are at discerning feelings behind others signals, the better we can control the signals that we send to them. An empathetic person is good in the orientation service. They can anticipate, recognize and meet the clients needs. Apart from that, they also excel in developing others by sensing what others need to progress, and also to cultivate opportunities through diverse people. Thirdly, social skills as an alternate main category of emotional intelligence are defined by the development for good interpersonal skills which is tantamount to success in our lives and career. For example, in todays world of cyber culture, professional accountants can immediately access to technical knowledge via computers. Thus, people skills are even more important because they possess a higher EQ to better understanding, empathizing, and negotiating with others in the global economy. Among the most useful social skills are wielding effective persuasion tactics, inspiring and guiding groups of people, and working with others towards shared goals. Why is emotional intelligence important? Some of us can accomplish certain tasks with great ease and sophistication, while other simply just cannot do those tasks. This is the case with the most challenges we face in life. Some of us are great chess players; others have trouble in figuring out how the pieces move. Some of us are fabulous conversationalists, while others

have trouble just saying hello. Now, without the game of chess or fabulous conversationalists, could it be a poorer place for us to live in? Emotional intelligence is crucial. It is one of the primary forms of information human beings process. That doesnt mean that everybody has to process it well. But it does mean that it is circulating around us. Furthermore, we all need emotional intelligence to help us through our emotionally demanding days. People who possess a high level of emotional intelligence are particularly good at establishing positive social relationships with others, and are able to avoid conflicts, fights, and other social altercations. Not forgetting that they also understand psychologically healthy living and staying away from problems such as drug abuse. They can coach and advice others and also assist other individuals and groups of people to live together with greater harmony and satisfaction. Moreover, emotional intelligence is important also because it has a direct connection between our emotional health and our physical health. If our lives are filled with stress, our physical health suffers. It has been proven by the World Health Organization, WHO that well over 80% of our health problems is stress-related. We experience stress primarily because we are uncomfortable emotionally. That is why we need emotional intelligence to understand the link between our emotional health and our physical health. In conclusion, emotional intelligence is an intelligence having to do with discerning and understanding emotional information. The three categories of emotional intelligence encompasses of self-awareness, empathy, and social skills. Each one of us must develop the mature emotional intelligence skills required for better understanding, empathizing, and negotiating with other people. Otherwise, success will elude us in our lives and career.