An article by Jean Greaves, Ph.D., author, consultant and promoter of emotional intelligence (EI), states the value of EQ boldly (Complete Lawyer, Vol. 1, No. 1 .
EI involves four core skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. The most important, self-awareness, depends on your recognizing what is happening to you as it happens. You then need to control yourself, the second core skill. Social awareness means recognizing accurately how another person feels. You are high EQ if you are skilled in those three abilities, and can also form solid relationships with others. (See my post of Nov. 13, 2005 on EQ and three other attributes of lawyers.)
Greaves maintains that “emotional intelligence explains 58% of job performance. That means of all the factors that a lawyer brings to the table (intellect, experience, personality and knowledge) emotional intelligence accounts for almost two-thirds of career success.”
If you suffer from low EI, “adult learning principles to change behavior” is your ticket to improve. Talk with others, observe someone who is emotionally intelligent, monitor yourself, and practice are some of the methods she advocates. (See my post of July 31, 2005 on emotional intelligence.)