The rules of work are changing. We’re being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will not, who will be let go and who retained, who passed over and who promoted.
These rules have little to do with what we were told was important in school; academic abilities are largely irrelevant to this standard. The new measure takes for granted having enough intellectual ability and technical know-how to do our jobs; it focuses instead on personal qualities, such as initiative and empathy, adaptability and persuasiveness.
In a time with no guarantees of job security, when the very concept of ‘job’ is rapidly being replaced by ‘portable skills’, these are prime qualities that make us and keep us employable. Talked about loosely for decades under a variety of names, form ‘character’ and ‘personality’ to ‘soft skills’ and ‘competence’, there is at last a more precise understanding of these human talents, and a new name for them: “Emotional Intelligence”.
What exactly is this emotional intelligence? Actually speaking it is an art of handling one’s own emotions and influencing others’ emotions. Every job differs from the other. Thus emotional requirements for each job will naturally differ in their perspective. Thus being emotionally compatible with the job is what emotional intelligence means.
Since for each job, requirements are different, there’s no standard for emotional intelligence. In this fast changing world, global village will soon become a reality. Competition is increasing and job security on the other hand is reducing. Similarly manpower is being cutback and therefore, burden of work per person has increased.
In such a scenario, managing wide number of activities for the organization has become inevitable for managers. Alongside, they have to deal with customers of different preferences from throughout the world, employees coming from different regions, belonging to different nationalities, they have to follow regulations of various governments, satisfy shareholders from various countries etc. Thus now, there has been a integration of different ideologies, philosophies, cultures, religions and traditions at a single place: “Work Place”!
An individual working in such an environment has to be compatible with it, has to be flexible enough, understanding and empathetic, and should be able to handle stress that comes with such a dynamic milieu. Unless an individual is capable of all this, he can’t perform well. Ultimately, an individual employee’s performance affects the organization’s performance and this in turn impacts the organisational goals. Thus an individual should necessarily be emotionally compatible with the job.
At work place, emotional stability has got following implications:
Emotional stability does not mean merely being nice. At strategic moments it may demand not being nice, but rather for example bluntly confronting someone with an uncomfortable but consequential truth they are avoiding.
Emotional stability does not mean giving free rein to feelings. Rather it means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals.
Emotional stability is not fixed genetically. It seems to be largely learned and continues to develop throughout the life.
A survey of employers reveals that they are now looking for more ‘emotionally stable and intelligent people’ rather than ‘extremely intelligent’ people. The employers want their employees to possess following:
Listening and oral communication.
Adaptability and creative responses to setbacks and obstacles.
Personal management, confidence, motivation to work towards goals, a sense of wanting to develop one’s career and take pride in its accomplishments.
Group and interpersonal effectiveness, cooperativeness and teamwork, skills at negotiating disagreements.
Effectiveness in the organization, wanting to make a contribution, leadership potential.
If this list is followed closely, it is clear that academic excellence has now lesser importance as compared to the emotional stability and emotional intelligence. Thus, managers should be necessarily emotionally stable.
These rules have little to do with what we were told was important in school; academic abilities are largely irrelevant to this standard. The new measure takes for granted having enough intellectual ability and technical know-how to do our jobs; it focuses instead on personal qualities, such as initiative and empathy, adaptability and persuasiveness.
In a time with no guarantees of job security, when the very concept of ‘job’ is rapidly being replaced by ‘portable skills’, these are prime qualities that make us and keep us employable. Talked about loosely for decades under a variety of names, form ‘character’ and ‘personality’ to ‘soft skills’ and ‘competence’, there is at last a more precise understanding of these human talents, and a new name for them: “Emotional Intelligence”.
What exactly is this emotional intelligence? Actually speaking it is an art of handling one’s own emotions and influencing others’ emotions. Every job differs from the other. Thus emotional requirements for each job will naturally differ in their perspective. Thus being emotionally compatible with the job is what emotional intelligence means.
Since for each job, requirements are different, there’s no standard for emotional intelligence. In this fast changing world, global village will soon become a reality. Competition is increasing and job security on the other hand is reducing. Similarly manpower is being cutback and therefore, burden of work per person has increased.
In such a scenario, managing wide number of activities for the organization has become inevitable for managers. Alongside, they have to deal with customers of different preferences from throughout the world, employees coming from different regions, belonging to different nationalities, they have to follow regulations of various governments, satisfy shareholders from various countries etc. Thus now, there has been a integration of different ideologies, philosophies, cultures, religions and traditions at a single place: “Work Place”!
An individual working in such an environment has to be compatible with it, has to be flexible enough, understanding and empathetic, and should be able to handle stress that comes with such a dynamic milieu. Unless an individual is capable of all this, he can’t perform well. Ultimately, an individual employee’s performance affects the organization’s performance and this in turn impacts the organisational goals. Thus an individual should necessarily be emotionally compatible with the job.
At work place, emotional stability has got following implications:
Emotional stability does not mean merely being nice. At strategic moments it may demand not being nice, but rather for example bluntly confronting someone with an uncomfortable but consequential truth they are avoiding.
Emotional stability does not mean giving free rein to feelings. Rather it means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals.
Emotional stability is not fixed genetically. It seems to be largely learned and continues to develop throughout the life.
A survey of employers reveals that they are now looking for more ‘emotionally stable and intelligent people’ rather than ‘extremely intelligent’ people. The employers want their employees to possess following:
Listening and oral communication.
Adaptability and creative responses to setbacks and obstacles.
Personal management, confidence, motivation to work towards goals, a sense of wanting to develop one’s career and take pride in its accomplishments.
Group and interpersonal effectiveness, cooperativeness and teamwork, skills at negotiating disagreements.
Effectiveness in the organization, wanting to make a contribution, leadership potential.
If this list is followed closely, it is clear that academic excellence has now lesser importance as compared to the emotional stability and emotional intelligence. Thus, managers should be necessarily emotionally stable.