Emotional Intelligence (EI) affects everyone on a personal level as it carries the ability to affect you and those around you.

Individual Level

From an individual level, having a higher level of emotional intelligence gives one the ability to recognize their own emotions (self-awareness) (Landry, 2019, para. 7). This paves the way for building skills to manage your feelings and having the ability to motivate oneself to get work done (self-management and social awareness). Only by having the ability to recognize your own emotions can you understand those of others. Those that maintain a high EI can sense the emotions of others and respond to them effectively (relationship management).

Group Settings

When working in a group setting it is crucial to make sound decisions. Your decisions ultimately determine the fate of a group. Increased emotional intelligence improves the ability to make sound decisions (Ottawa University, 2020, para. 3). This in turn guides the building and sustaining of collaborative relationships. As previously stated, self-awareness paves the way for understanding the emotions of others. Only by understanding the opposing party can collaborative relationships be sustained as you are doing your part in making sure the bond between you and a group member remains until the task on hand is accomplished.

Stress and change can go hand in hand and are quite prevalent when doing collaborative work (Ottawa University, 2020, para. 3). The vision a group may have for example may not always end up being what it was initially sought out to be. Having to change and refine processes in order to make a certain idea work is completely normal but can carry stress since most people do not respond well to change. By comprising a high level of EI, the barriers to dealing with stress and change are drastically decreased. You understand the obstacle much better which results in a more determined approach. Being more determined ultimately increases the likelihood of completing the task on hand and builds confidence toward reaching goals in the future.

Consequences

What happens if your or your group’s EI level is low? Studies have shown that low levels of EI can lead to decreased employee morale, leading to high turnover (Landry, 2019, para. 17). In a university setting, this translates to the inability of completing work (e.g., missing deadlines, slacking, poor quality of work) and group members withdrawing. Low EI levels are often a root cause of dysfunctional teams because of the inability of members to understand one another.

Click here to read for a more detailed breakdown of the components of emotional intelligence