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EQ and Training - Part 1
There was no known emotional quotient test when Harvard professor Daniel Goleman published his book "Emotional Intelligence" in 1995. The term "emotional quotient" did not appear in the book.
Soon after its publication, the book received critical acclaim and became a best seller.
It reached a lofty status when people came to look upon emotional intelligence, now better known as EQ, as being equally important as IQ, a scientific comparative measure of intelligence that has been accepted worldwide.
Within a few years, scholars from around the world were publishing books on management, sales, business set-up, interpersonal relationship, psychology, family value, education, etc, with particular reference to EQ.
Yale psychologist Peter Salovey gave EQ a definition that was favoured by his counterparts in general. He perceived EQ as having five main domains:
(1) knowing your own emotions;
(2) managing emotions;
(3) emotional self-control and delaying gratification;
(4) recognising emotions in others; and
(5) handling relationships.
Trainers' duties are important as they are meaningful in that they help organisations grow, enhance staff knowledge and make them dutiful and loyal. But there are times when trainers need some sort of training for themselves too. And this time it is EQ - for the magic power it has on trainers who are aiming for the best.
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Knowing your own emotions
How much do you know about your emotions? How often do you go to emotional extremes? To what extent are you capable of expressing your emotions like happiness, anger or grief?
Emotions are what EQ is all about, and it is our emotions that we need to know a lot more. Defining emotion however is no easy task.
Over the years, psychologists and philosophers have tried without success to give emotion a definition that will be acceptable by all.
The Oxford Dictionary defines emotion as "excitement or disturbance of the feelings".
The tremendous volume of words we have about emotions is strong evidence of the innumerable forms of emotions that can exist in us.
To put it simply, there are positive and negative emotions, and the most common ones being happiness, sadness, adoration, anger, fear, surprise, hatred and shame.
As you try to distinguish the emotions as mentioned above, you may find that they exist in hundreds of forms and in some cases they are mixed.
Managing emotions
We are not able emotional managers if we do not understand ourselves.
The more early we are aware of an imminent emotional outburst, the better chance we have to get out of a possible nasty scene and soothe ourselves in a sensible way.
It is not uncommon for us as instructors to come across trainees who have trouble catching up with the rest of the class.
What do you do when you have a trainee who has trouble in learning? Surely, you are not going to let anger or disappointment take control of you just because of the unsatisfactory performance of some trainees.
An early detection of such emotions brewing inside means more time to redress the situation and better chance to build up a good learning atmosphere among the classes.
(Information provided by Training Development Bureau Superintendent Kung Pak-sing)
Learn more on EQ next issue
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