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Unleash Your Emotions

26th Dec 1999

Emotional Intelligence refutes the out moded idea that the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) alone determines destiny. It proposes that personal skills like self-awareness and empathy influence your degree of success in life as much as - or more than - IQ.

A clinching evidence of the hypothesis came through a recent opinion poll declaring Albert Einstein as Man of the Century. Einstein, a school drop-out, used his logical and mathematical skills to change the face of physics with his theory of relativity. "The uni-dimensional yardstick of IQ as a measure of intelligence in a person, is ill-founded. The presence of multiple intelligences in human beings was first put forward by Howard Gardner, while conducting a study for the Rockerfeller Foundation," says Douglas Breckenridge , emotional intelligence trainer and the man behind The Business Workshop.

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to handle your own emotions as well as managing relationships, be it personal or at work. "Emotional Intelligence does not mean never getting angry. It simply means that you control your emotions, rather than letting them control you. Using them well in the difference between being someone who not only 'fits in', but also being an effective team player and leader", says Breckenridge.

According to Gardener, there are six types of intelligences: musical, verbal / linguistic, logical / mathematical, visual / spatial, kinesthetic and personal / emotional intelligence. Among these, the last is the umbrella for all other intelligences, according to Breckenridge.

The first in a series of workshop to be conducted by Breckenridge at a five-star hotel in New Delhi recently, "was an attempt to activate the emotional awareness of the participants and help them use their emotional intelligences for achieving their individual goals. This can be achieved by developing emotional intelligence skills like motivation, management of emotions, empathy, self awareness and handling relationships," he says. The 30 percent including managers from multinational conglomerates, the public sector and even professors from the Indian Administrative Service Academy, had an orientation session geared toward identifying the emotional component in each of their daily activities. The fee for the day long workshop was Rs.3,700 per participant.
Breckenridge began with an interesting exercise of making all participants brush their teeth to understand what their feelings and emotions are in early hours. Says Rajiv Talwar, Assistant General Manager (training), Koshika Telecom Limited. "I am here because emotional intelligence as a concept is an unknown entity in human resource development in the country. As my job profile requires training my associates on a regular basis, vital tips on how to interact with them can be picked up here," he said. But Talwar felt that one-day workshop was a trifle too short to understand the nuances of emotional intelligence. At best, it could spark off an interest in the subject, he feels.

Faisal Saiyad, human resources coordinator with Hughes Software Systems does not think so. "I found the workshop very useful in helping me understand my emotions, to begin with. Only after that is achieved can one proceed to understand the emotional patterns of one's peer and colleagues. It will certainly help me improve my efficacy personally and professionally," he says.

Rajiv Mathur, senior manager (personnel) with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited is acquainted with emotional Intelligence but wanted to enhance his knowledge on the subject. "Regulating our emotions in our interactions with people is vital. And one can regulate emotions only after one knows them well. That is half the job done. Then, one has to understand the emotions of co-workers to lead and train them. Once you understand the behaviour patterns of your colleagues, a mutually beneficial partnership can be forged," says Mathur.
Author Daniel Goleman, whose book Reader's Companion to Emotional Intelligence was a New York Times bestseller for 55 weeks says that each of us have two minds - the emotional and the rational. Ideally they work together - our feelings inform the rational mind and the rational mind refines the input of our emotions. When they team up, both emotional intelligence and intellectual ability are stronger.

An emotion, says Dr. Goleman, is an impulse to act. Impulses to fight, flee, laugh, cry, celebrate, play or relax have been "hard-wired" into us by evolution. Sudden bursts of anger or fear may have had high survival value for our early ancestors, but these emergency responses don't always work in our high-stress modern world. A key challenge of present-day life, then, is to manage our surges of feeling.

S.G Iyer, chief, human resources development, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited came to the workshop seeking precisely this. "Emotions play an important part in the corporate sector. Proper proportions of Intelligence abilities and emotional content should go into taking decisions in the human resource development sector. For instance, one can't offer a placement based on one's own feelings towards the candidate," he offers.
Even the LBS National Academy of Administration at Mussourie is contemplating widening the content on Emotional Intelligence in their curriculum. Says Santosh Mathew, a professor at the academy, "Emotional Intelligence exists in the syllabi but not in a very focussed manner. Though we are still exploring the idea that it is the mother of all intelligence," he says. But a very practical application of emotional intelligence is for Anindo Burman, head of administration with Maruti Udyog Limited. "Being an administrator, I have to interact with union members, blue collar workers and the canteen staff. Many of them approach us with union problems or administrative nags and are very emotional in their pleas. The workshop will help me understand their emotions well, as opposed to the logical approach to problem-solving which I have been fed up the career ladder," he feels.