Emotional intelligence is considered by some like something new but its roots go back to Darwin who postulated that "emotional expression was essential for survival". There are many ways to define what emotional intelligence is but we can say that EI is the ability to be aware of our own emotions and of other people around us and use that knowledge in search of solutions, conflict resolution.
Those who have a high level of emotional intelligence understand the physical, social and mental impact that some negative emotions can have on their bodies, minds, relationships and the ability to achieve their goals by being able to moderate their own emotions, so that they can withstand their activities and improve their quality of life.
In 1983, Howard Gardner published "Pictures of the mind: The theory of multiple intelligences". In this book he question many researchers by saying that there is more than one type of intelligence, and that they were of a cognitive nature, but that could not be defined with the standard models available at the time such as the IQ TEST. His model of multiple intelligences focused on:
Intrapersonal Intelligence: the ability to understand your own emotions, fears and motivations.
Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to understand the intentions, motives, desires of other people.
Gardner believed that these intelligences were as important as traditional intelligence in predicting a person's performance and success. Although the term had not been used for that time, it was already being explored.
As Darwin theorized, researchers have understood that emotions serve as a biological purpose. Emotions help us to detect that something is wrong or when our needs are not met.
There are social, mental and physical consequences to our ability to manage our emotions. As emotions are the way our body has to indicate situations, we have the tendency to ignore it at our discretion. Ignore our emotions not only guarantees unhappiness but can also lead to illness and / or early death.
With the rise of studies conducted on IE, companies today are not focusing only on the Standard Intelligence of people because they already know that only that will not make them successful. Things like the way they develop, express themselves and interact with other people is essential.
When a person who has developed his IE finds uncomfortable situations at work, reacts differently, are able to stop and analyze the situation, as well as know what intentions his interlocutor has. They are able to understand what other people feel and establish empathy.
They know how to choose a behavior that not only helps them overcome the situation, but also resolves it. When you have a developed emotional intelligence, defeats are considered learning experiences and an opportunity to improve relationships with others, recover faster from those defeats and experience allows them to improve internally as a person. Having a work environment with high levels of EI allows for the ideas of all people to be respected, teamwork reaches optimal levels, gossip and negative behaviors are eradicated, the success of all colleagues is celebrated, they are overcome obstacles as a work team, decisions are made in consensus, integrity is valued, the working relationship is satisfactory and the potential of the worker is in constant development.
