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Ways to Deepen Your Emotional Intelligence

by Doug Boebinger, MS, PMP®, PMTA-CTP

Emotional Intelligence Illustration

March 6, 2021

Yes, Emotional Intelligence can be taught.

There are three factors that tend to aid your professional (and personal) growth:

  1. Technical knowledge: How well you understand and use the “tools of your trade”. (IPDI has a ton of courses to help with your project management technical knowledge.)
  2. Intellectual Quotient (IQ): Studies have shown this is hereditary. You cannot do much to change your IQ.
  3. Emotional Intelligence (EI): EI plays a large role in your professional (and personal) success as it deals with how you interact with others.

EI is not new.  It was first introduced by John Mayer and Peter Salovey in 1990 and made popular by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 best seller Emotional Intelligence.

The model of emotional intelligence proposed by Salovey and Mayer contains four parts:

  1. Perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately: intel
  2. Use emotions to facilitate thinking
  3. Understand emotions, emotional language, and the signals conveyed by emotion
  4. Manage emotions to attain specific goals

In a Psychology Today article “What Is Emotional Intelligence?” it states that EI refers “to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.”

A subsequent Psychology Today article “7 Simple Ways to Deepen Your Emotional Intelligence” lists:

  1. Label your emotions
  2. Consider how your emotions affect your judgment.
  3. Decide whether your feelings are a friend or an enemy
  4. Be responsible for your own emotions
  5. Notice other people’s feelings
  6. Limit your screen time
  7. Reflect on your progress

EI is a journey and it starts with you dealing with the most difficult person in your life.  You!

Here’s a link to information on our onsite and live virtual class to aid you in your Emotional Intelligence journey, and here’s information on the online class, Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers.

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