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There is now general agreement that it takes more than cognitive intelligence to be a success in life and at work. Daniel Goleman believes that emotional competence is twice as important as technical competence. Following on from his initial work, Goleman attempts to build a performance-based model of EQ at work named ‘The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal’ which we summarize here.
Goleman’s 2000 model of performance is based on what he calls ‘emotional competency’.
He defines emotional competence as: ‘a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work.’ [1]
To develop a competence, we have to have certain underlying EQ abilities, such as social awareness or relationship management. However, the key is that the competencies can be learned.
Goleman identifies 20 core competencies which fall into one of four clusters:
- self-awareness
- self-management
- social awareness
- relationship management
The four clusters and the core competencies are outlined below.
1. Self-Awareness
- Emotional self-awareness: recognizing one’s feelings, recognizing the motivation for them, and identifying how they affect performance at work.
- Accurate self-assessment: knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
- Self-confidence: knowing what you do well and believing in your abilities.
2. Self-Management
- Emotional self-control: handling difficult or challenging situations without an adverse emotional reaction.
- Trustworthiness: letting people know your values, and acting in a way that is aligned with them.
- Conscientiousness: being responsible, disciplined and keeping promises and agreements.
- Adaptability: being open-minded, willing to be persuaded by fact, comfortable wherever you are.
- Achievement orientation: having an optimistic drive to continually get better at whatever it is that you do.
- Initiative: you act before you are forced to by circumstance.
3. Social Awareness
- Empathy: being aware of other people’s feelings and moderating your behavior to suit them.
- Service orientation: identifying a customer’s needs and fulfilling them. Sometimes these needs will not be explicitly stated.
- Organizational awareness: being aware of organizational culture, values and politics.
4. Relationship Management
- Developing others: recognizing potential in other people and drawing it out.
- Influence: being persuasive and carefully managing your emotions in response to those of others.
- Communication: listening well, being open and honest, being able to communicate your desires.
- Conflict management: having the ability to see when things are going wrong and being capable of directing actions to prevent this from happening.
- Leadership: having the ability to formulate a vision and to inspire others to follow it.
- Change catalyst: recognizing the need for change; removing barriers and inspiring others to act.
- Building bonds: having the ability to develop strong relationships and network effectively.
- Collaboration and teamwork: being able to work with others and listen to what others think, even if you are in disagreement.
The four categories that Goleman has identified are grouped for a reason; these competencies seem to work in synergy. The organization should use these competencies as a performance measure, with individuals being assessed on each of them. Goleman believes that ‘star performers’ will excel on at least six EQ competencies. They should also be particularly strong in one of the four clusters.
Of course, in identifying weaknesses, individuals can embark on training and self-learning to improve. Although difficult, it is possible to develop emotional competencies.
References[1] Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, 1998).
