Emotional Quotient

I think everyone has heard of an IQ.  But I doubt many people have heard of an EQ, or emotional quotient.  I often take for granted the knowledge and skills that I have been taught, assuming that others have the same knowledge.  I forget that many success principles were taught to me at a young age.

So the idea of an Emotional Quotient is really quite simple.  It is your ability to deal with your emotions, to control them rather than allowing them to control you.  As we were recently talking with a team member about his attitude, it suddenly occurred to me that he needed to understand his EQ and learn how to develop it.  Typically, this team member can be a little grumpy in the morning.  And worse, whenever his tasks seem to pile up or more than one thing is presented to him at a time, he gets very negative and doesn't handle it very well at first.

As I started to explain EQ, it made sense to me.  I was very thankful to this because at least he was willing to acknowledge the problem.  I know that one talk with him about it won't immediately change things.  But at least being aware, he can now start to make an effort toward improvement.  It really is something inside of you and a habit that has to be developed over time.  No one can increase there EQ overnight!

So how can you develop this emotional quotient and how will it help you?  For me, my EQ was developed through hard work and tons of rejection.  I can remember in high school I had an extremely short temper at home and often times blew up at people.  I controlled it pretty well at school and in other situations, but at home I just couldn't handle it.  I have to attribute my many summers of door to door sales that allowed me to really deal with problems and not let them effect my attitude.  I always had to be in a good mood or else nobody would want to talk to me.  And that was not good for sales!

Obviously this helped with my sales then and now.  But to this day, whether there is a problem at home, at work, or anywhere else, I am able to control my reaction and deal with the problem logically.  It is so rare that I make an emotional decision about anything. My wife tells me I actually have too much patience at times.  This has helped me to manage people, have better relationships with friends, and a better relationship with my wife.  I'm not perfect.  Home is probably still my weakest area and the times my EQ gets the lowest.  But I'm always working on it!

Just google emotional quotient and you will find much more information out there about it.  And if you need help developing it, I'm always here.