So your alarm clock didn’t go off, you burned your breakfast, had a row at home, then got stuck in traffic. Do you arrive at work, switch on your computer and calmly settle down to work? Or do you stomp around the office and make sure everyone knows to avoid you until you have had three cups of coffee? How you behave reflects your level of emotional intelligence, also known as EQ.

EQ is the ability to identify and understand our own emotional reactions and those of others, to regulate our emotions and to use them to make good decisions and to act effectively. EQ consist of four areas: self awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

EQ underpins many of behavioural competencies: for example, “relationship building for influence” and “teamworking” depend on our ability to connect with others on an emotional level, to understand what they are feeling and why, and to manage our emotions.

Can EQ be learned? Yes – but it takes sustained effort. Habits of behaviour are learned early in life. To  change these habits, it is not enough to just read about emotional intelligence and understand it on a cognitive level. We need to learn by doing. You don’t learn to ride a bike by reading until you master it. To raise your EQ you need to first understand it, than practise, practise, practise.

As a British Council Library member you have a free subscription to the Ashridge Virtual Learning Resource Centre whose learning guides include Emotional Intelligence. You can access the Ashridge Centre via My Athens link. You will need your user name and password you recived in your inbox when you became a library member. For more information on how to access Emotional Intelligence learning guides click here. If you don’t remember your password please click here and we will issue you a new password.