The Hudson River airplane landing by Captain Sullenberger is a great demonstration of well-developed emotional intelligence.  Once the audio recordings of Captain “Sully” were made public, listeners have been stunned and amazed at the immense calm Sully demonstrated and the resoluteness with which he told air traffic control, “We’re going to be in the Hudson.”

Why was Captain Sullenberger so calm when other people in a life-or-death situation would be hysterical?

Emotional Intelligence has everything to do with how you handle your everyday life.  Think about your responses to some of these questions.

Do you feel outraged when someone cuts in front of you in line?

Do you scream at the road when you are driving?

Do you have arguments with a lot of other people?

Do you cut people off when they are talking?

Do you get tense when you have to ask someone a question about something that may not go your way?

If you answered “yes” to more than one of those then you are probably weak in some area of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence

While a concrete emotional intelligence (called EQ and sometimes EI) definition is under debate, the emotional intelligence theory can be summed up very succinctly as a combination of common sense and maturity.

Emotional intelligence is different than the traditional intelligence quotient (IQ), which basically measures how smart a person is.  IQ and emotional intelligence do not necessarily go hand in hand.

You might know someone who is very smart, never needed to study in school, and can build a radio from a tin can, a paintbrush, and some duct tape.  But put that person in a social situation or in a leadership position and you’ll wonder where the IQ went. A person can be very smart (high IQ) and have low emotional intelligence, making them seem immature or weak under tough circumstances.

Then you may know someone that barely finished school, doesn’t like to read books and is super successful.  They have a lot of friends, are highly regarded in the community and no one knows they didn’t go to college.  They thrived, with some finesse, hard work and their ability to read and negotiate with people.

An overview of Emotional Intelligence

The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves is an excellent quick read.  This book also comes with a free assessment as long as the book is new and someone hasn’t used it.

The book describes the difference of IQ from EQ.  Your IQ never changes and stays the same.  They have done studies and found that two people with the same IQ can have completely different levels of success.  Also your IQ is your ability to learn and it does not change over time.  On the other hand EQ can be developed even if you are not born with it.

Your senses enter your brain through your spinal cord and must travel through the limbic system before you can think rationally about your experience.  Emotional intelligence requires smooth communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain.  When you practice emotional intelligence, the traffic flows smoothly in both directions.

The four emotional skills they identify are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. Understanding how they work and how they interact is important at gaining EQ.

When did EQ become popular?

Daniel Goleman is the person most responsible for the current interest in Emotional Intelligence.  His research showed that emotional intelligence is twice as important as IQ and technical skill combined when accounting for outstanding performance. “And the higher up you go in an organization, the more important these qualities are for success,” Goleman says. “When it comes to leadership, they are almost everything.”

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

The importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace is clearly seen in the examples set by not only Captain Sullenberger, but also the air traffic controller who remained calm and highly efficient as he quickly located several other clear runways for the plane, then quickly summoned police, helicopters, and other rescue personnel to the Hudson, not knowing what kind of disaster might have happened.

Other examples of emotional intelligence are seen in people who work well under pressure, those who are good team players, and who set high examples for themselves and their team. The emotional competencies seen with the best leaders are:

• Initiative, achievement drive and adaptability

• Influence, team leadership and political awareness

• Empathy, self-confidence and developing others

Having a well developed emotional intelligence is as important as other leadership skills when it comes to being a supervisor, not to mention that it benefits you in all areas of your life.