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Tips on How to Explain Emotional Intelligence Perspectives and Examples

As mentioned above, Daniel Goleman's approach to Emotional Intelligence is not the only one. The work of Mayer, Salovey and Caruso is also very significant in  the field of Emotional Intelligence and can be explored further on John Meyer's Emotional Intelligence website.

When teaching or explaining Emotional Intelligence it can be helpful to the teacher and learners to look at other concepts and methodologies, many of which contain EQ elements and examples.

Emotional Intelligence tests/activities/exercises books - for young people ostensibly, but just as relevant to grown-ups - provide interesting and useful exercises, examples, theory, etc., for presentations and participative experience if you are explaining EQ or teaching a group. For example '50 Activities for Teaching Emotional Intelligence' by Dianne Schilling - my copy was published by Inner choice Publishing - ISBN 1-56499-37-0, if you can find it. Otherwise look at Amazon and search for 'activities for teaching emotional intelligence'.

There's a very strong link between EQ and TA (Transactional Analysis). To understand and explain EQ you can refer to the 'adult' aspect of the TA model (for example, we are less emotional intelligent/mature when slipping into negative child or parent modes). In this way we can see that one's strength in EQ is certainly linked to personal experience, especially formative years.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is very relevant to EQ, as is Multiple Intelligences Theory.

Ethical business and socially responsible leadership are strongly connected to EQ.

So is the concept of love and spirituality in organizations. Compassion and humanity are fundamental life-forces; our Emotional Intelligence enables us to appreciate and develop these vital connections between self, others, purpose, meaning, existence, life and the world as a whole, and to help others do the same.

People with strong EQ have less emotional "baggage", and conversely, people with low EQ tend to have personal unresolved issues which either act as triggers (see Freud/Penfield TA roots explanation) or are constants in personality make-up.

Cherie Carter-Scott's 'If Life Is Game' and Don Miguel Ruiz's 'The Four Agreements' also provide excellent additional EQ reference perspectives.

Empathy and active interpretive modes of listening are also very relevant to EQ.

Ingham and Luft's Johari Window and associated exercises on the free team building games section also help explain another perspective. That is, as a rule, the higher a person's EQ, the less insecurity is likely to be present, and the more openness will be tolerated.

High EQ = low insecurity = more openness

A person's preparedness to expose their feelings, vulnerabilities, thoughts, etc., is a feature of EQ. Again the converse applies. Johari illustrates this very well.

Maslow's theory is also relevant to Emotional intelligence. Self-actualizers naturally have stronger EQ. People struggling to meet lower order needs - and arguably even middle order needs such as esteem needs - tend to have lower EQ than self-actualizers. The original 5-stage Hierarchy of Needs explains that all needs other than self-actualization are deficiency drivers, which suggest,in other words, some EQ development potential or weakness.

There is a strong thread of EQ running through Stephen Covey's 7 Habits.

In fact, most theories involving communications and behavior become more powerful and meaningful when related to Emotional Intelligence, for example :

  • Leadership
  • Buying Facilitation
  • Benziger Thinking Styles and Assessment Model
  • McGregor XY Theory