What is Emotional Intelligence

Neurological evidence shows that thoughts and feelings do not occur randomly. They are responses to a stimulus which has been perceived, interpreted and filtered through one’s underlying attitudes. It is a person’s attitude that largely influences their feelings, thoughts and in turn behaviours. Consequently, Emotional Intelligence is fundamentally influenced by the attitudes you hold toward yourself and others.

Emotional Intelligence involves noticing, labelling and interpreting our emotions and the emotions of others. Emotional Intelligence involves incorporating our feelings and intuition into our thinking; for example, sensing risk when walking close to the edge of a cliff or approaching a difficult conversation at work.

Emotional Intelligence is concerned with how people manage and get the best out of themselves and their innate resources. For example, deploying your full intellectual potential under pressure requires effective emotion regulation. In practical terms, Emotional Intelligence can start with identifying and dismantling limiting beliefs or restrictive habits and replacing them with enhancing ones.

Emotions serve an important social and adaptive function. They increase our awareness of others, providing information on the perspective of others and an understanding of why others behave the way they do. Therefore, Emotional Intelligence refers to the capacity to adapt our behaviour within the social context.

Like any skill, Emotional Intelligence can be developed and it takes practice. Noticing and managing our attitudes, emotions and behaviour in a changing social context is a continual process. Emotional Intelligence is reflected by what a person does in the present moment. Emotional Intelligence is therefore described as a verb; it is about being emotionally intelligent.

Based on neurological evidence we created a defining model of Emotional Intelligence that provides an organising framework for understanding effective human behaviour. Our model of Emotional Intelligence consists of two parts: Personal Intelligence : having positive self-regard, being self-aware and managing your behaviour effectively. Interpersonal Intelligence: having a positive regard for others, being aware of others and managing your relationships effectively.

Our model is unique in that it recognises and measures Emotional Intelligence at the attitudinal level. We are able to unlock potential and enable sustainable change by identifying the underlying attitudes that underpin an individual’s thinking and feeling, which then drives their behaviour.