Emotional Intelligence

Quotes:

• 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
• When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with the creatures of emotion. - Dale Carnegie
• 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) 
• “What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills - your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests.”  — Daniel Goleman
• Whatever begins in anger, ends in shame.” —- Benjamin Franklin
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence - Robert K. Cooper

EMOTIONS:

• Emotions are often defined as strong feelings, either positive or negative, directed at someone or something. For instance, happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, wrath, surprise, and so on. There are 3 vital elements of emotions:

Function of Emotions

Characteristics of Emotions:

• Reaction to an event: Emotions are felt in response to certain internal or external, physical or intangible acts or events.

• Ex. Hearth beat increases during first public speaking
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s reactions after winning the title of IPL 2023

• Saurav Ganguly reacted enthusiastically after winning the Netwest trophy at the Lord’s Stadium London

• Action motivation: An action motive is triggered, i.e., seeking objects and activities that provide pleasure and avoiding those that cause pain or unpleasantness. Ex. 

• A. P J Abdul Kalam motivated to develop arms like arrows after watching Ramayana

• The role of senses and thoughts: Emotions come from our sensations, perceptions, and thoughts about objects, people, and circumstances.

• Intensity variation: The intensity of emotions varies as per situation like tense, jolly, historic achievement etc.

• Ex. Intensity of emotions is very high while going through published result 

• Neil Arm Strong’s hearth beat increased sharply when he put his steps on the Moon

• Desirable or undesirable: Emotions can be desirable or undesirable to a person based on whether the experience is seen as 'good' or 'negative'.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI):

• Intelligence is a set of cognitive abilities that allow us to learn, gain knowledge, and solve problems. 
• Emotional Intelligence is defined as "the ability to identify one's own and others' emotions, harness and apply them to tasks, and regulate and manage them.
• "The term was coined by two researchers – Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990. However, it was popularized by Daniel Goleman’s book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’ in 1996.

Elements of Emotional Intelligence:

• Self-Awareness: It is the ability to be aware of and understand one's emotions as they develop and evolve.

Techniques to become self-aware:

• Self-Regulation is the process of controlling one's emotions, which means that instead of reacting hastily, one may reign in one's emotions and thus consider before responding.

Techniques to regulate emotion:

• Self-motivation: It includes a person's internal drive to improve and attain devotion to one's goals, initiative, or readiness to act on opportunities, optimism, and resilience.

Steps to stay motivated

• Empathy/ Social Awareness: It is the knowledge of the needs and feelings of others, both individually and in groups, as well as the ability to see things from the perspective of others.

Steps to develop empathy

• Social skills: These are the ability to empathize with others and balance their wants and needs with one's own. It entails developing positive relationships with people.

Steps to improve social skill or relationship management:

Benefit of Emotional Intelligence

• Performance at workplace: Daniel Goleman asserts that 80% of success at workplace is due to emotional quotient and 20% due to intelligence quotient. 
• Physical & mental health: Inability to control stress level may lead to many serious health problems like high/low blood pressure, suppressed immune system, speeding up the aging process, anxiety and depression. 
• Ex. Patience of Diabetics have increased significantly due to overthinking, haphazard lifestyle
• Enhanced relationship & interpersonal skills: Good relations in the personal, social and professional sphere and also balance among them. 

• Ex. India having good relation with Israel, Saudi Arab, Philistine and Iran, however they have hostile relation in themselves. 

• Effective conflict management 
• Ex. Issues of Naxalism has been controlled by using tools of Emotional intelligence like social skills, empathy
• Enthusiastic work environment: It helps to increased productivity, effective problem-solving decision making ambient.

• Ex. Work culture of new age startups, ISRO’s  lab, Google etc. 

• Higher Creativity: Ex. Country’s top in World Happiness Index also performing excellent in Innovation index like Iceland, Swedan, Norway etc.

Application of Emotions in Governance

• Relationship between different entities of government: Governance is the way resources are utilized for the development. Relationships are the DNA of governance and EI is at the core of any relationship. Without people who can develop trusting relationships with other people, there is no governance. 

Ex. Swastaya Swaraj is trying to make good health a reality for the poorest and most disadvantaged people. It has established model community health programmes in tribal areas such as the Thuamul Rampur Block of Odisha's Kalahandi district

• Civil service values: Foundational values of empathy & Compassion, tolerance, impartiality etc requires EI. 

Ex. When an angry mob is protesting for justice for a rape victim, a Civil Servant should be able to get hold of public emotions and should be able to pacify them with his/her words

• Social capital: It refers to the bonds of mutual respect and care among members of a collective. Social capital allows for reducing the transaction costs of economic exchange. The higher the level of group emotional intelligence, higher is the level of social capital. 
• Good decision making: “power with rather than power over”. Emotional intelligence, focuses like a laser beam what is important to us. Without the signals communicated by emotions, life would be drab, colorless and meaningless. 
• Leadership: manager relation: Ex. A civil servant high on emotional intelligence will be able to solve difficult issues such as IAS Office OP Choudhary solved the problem of lack of availability of skilled labour with education initiative ‘Choo Lo Aasman’.

Challenges for the development of Emotional intelligence 

• Work pressure: There is excessive work pressure on the bureaucracy which leads to development of “do whatever it takes” approach. 

• Example: Police of a state use to work more than 15 hours per day, which cause them to become casual for time being.

• Cultural gap: There is also cultural gap between the bureaucracy and public, which reduces the empathy, understanding of the public among the bureaucracy and increases the communication gap between them.

• Example: Migrant workers come from North Eastern states to Delhi use to feel gap of communication

• Use of technology: Technology is being increasingly used in the administration now. However, technology lacks emotions and becomes a hinderance in emotional intelligence.

• Example: A girl, Santoshi Kumari from Jharkhand died due to starvation because of denial of ration as the family’s ration card was not linked with Aadhar card.

• Excessive anonymity and hierarchy: Anonymity is considered the strength of the bureaucracy. However, excessive anonymity and hierarchy might sometimes lead to lack of motivation for taking up responsibility.

• Example: A government official can refuse to grant PDS benefits to a destitute (eligible but lacking required documents) by making an excuse over want of order from higher officials.

• Lack of training: Indian bureaucracy is largely trained on the technical part of the task but not on the emotional intelligence. Also, there is reluctance/red tapism in changing the curriculum of training.

• Ex. Ticket checker (TC) has been provided tablet to update with current status, but some of them are not adapting themselves 

Areas of EI according to Mayer & Salovey Ability Model:

• The ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately.
• The ability to use emotions to facilitate thinking.
• The ability to understand emotions, emotional language, and the signals conveyed by emotions.
• The ability to manage emotions so as to attain specific goals.

Emotional Quotient, Intelligence Quotient and EI:

Success Trinity

• Creative Quotient (CQ): It is used to assess intelligence’s ability to be creative and adventurous. 
• Intelligent Quotient (IQ): This is your mental or reasoning aptitude, as well as your ability to learn and understand. 
• Emotional Quotient (EQ): the ability to notice, appraise, and control one's own and others' emotions. 

Examples/ Best Practices

Best Practices

• Save life Foundations - Focused on enabling bystander care or community-driven emergency medical response for road accident victims. As people do not indulge in these cases for fear of the formalities and police issues, they have also been working on a supportive legal framework for bystanders to help the victims of road accidents.
• Video Volunteers - An international community media organisation that trains women and men in developing countries in critical thinking, creative, activist, and video journalism skills. It facilitates communities to expose underreported stories and take action to correct the wrongs of poverty, injustice, and inequality. As a result, it encourages community producers to speak up and be recognised.

• Arth India: Academy for Applied Research and Training in Healthcare in India  is a non-government initiative striving for the attainment of better health of the community supplementing, and not substituting, the existing and future government systems and networks in healthcare in India.

• NGO CRY - During the lockdown period, CRY’s (Child Rights and You) efforts, along with its partner NGOs, have been concentrated on reaching all households as far as possible, with basic health and hygiene kits for the children and their families. 

• Salaam Bombay Foundation has taken up certain initiatives to keep the slum children engaged, mentally and emotionally while using technology to hone their skills and create an environment which is positively reinforcing. 

• Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), Bangalore, Karnataka CUPA is a non-profit and non-government organisation.
• The Swasth Foundation was founded with the objective of "Health and Joy for Everyone." The organisation's network of primary healthcare centres offers low-cost services that cut out-of-pocket expenses for individuals in need by more than half.
• CanKids KidsCan - It is India's first national Charity that works throughout the entire spectrum of kids cancer care. CanKids' signature programme, YANA (You Are Not Alone), provides holistic support to a child with cancer from the moment of diagnosis.
• DoctorsForSeva Foundation Arogya (Aarogya Seva) - Aarogya Seva is a humanitarian volunteer organisation that provides quality healthcare services to diverse strata of society through micro-volunteering.
• MAYA (Movement for Alternatives and Youth Awareness) is a Karnataka-based non-profit that works to promote a fair society by systematically addressing issues of livelihood, education, and health. MAYA (Movement for Alternatives and Youth Awareness) is a Karnataka-based non-profit that works to promote a fair society by systematically addressing issues of livelihood, education, and health.