Emotional Intelligence: How Competent Are You? By Daniel Goleman

When I talk about emotional intelligence, I’m not referring to a fixed trait. Emotional intelligence is a set of skills that can be developed. In my model of emotional intelligence those skills fall into four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Richard Boyatzis and I worked with KF Hay Group to produce a tool for assessing twelve emotional intelligence competencies nested within each of these four domains that make people stars in the workplace.
Competence: Another Way of Saying Skill
Competence is another way of saying skill. It’s learned and learnable. The concept of competence itself has been around for many years. Richard and I were in on it at the beginning working with our professor at Harvard, David McClelland. Companies saw this as a method to determine what abilities made their star performers so effective. This is important, competitive information. Organizations look at their top performers and average performers and systematically analyze what they see in the top people that they don't see in the average. Then, they seek to help their employees develop these competencies and hire and promote people that look like the stars.
In our research, we’ve specified emotional intelligence competencies used by outstanding leaders that can be assessed objectively, behaviorally—everyone can see it, you know you’re doing it. Those are the ones we included in the Emotional and Social Competencies Inventory. The ESCI is a 360-degree assessment, meaning an individual completes a survey as do people above and below that person in an organization. Then, the individual receives the information about their own self-assessment as well as the anonymous ratings done by the others.
Learn More about the Twelve Emotional Intelligence Competencies
This month, I’m working with More Than Sound on a video describing each of the twelve emotional intelligence competencies, what they are, why they matter, and how leaders can use them effectively. This video is part of a series that will be released this fall. I’ll let you know when it is available. Until then, here are short descriptions of each of the competencies. Can you see these skills in your own behavior and in the actions of people around you?
KINGSMITH.