Emotional Intelligence 2.0

This is going to be a unique post.  I am currently going through a leadership preparatory academy and we have a slew of books that we will be reading.  One of the first books we are reading is Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves.

I thought discussing my results here first may help me in class this week.  Currently we have only been assigned to read pages 1-55 of this book.  The first thing the book asks you to do in Chapter 1 is to take the test.  This is going to be a book we read throughout the academy and at the end we will retake the test and see if we have grown emotionally.  Pretty interesting stuff, right?  If you are interested in doing this yourself (and maybe take a journey with me) the book is available here: $11.45 at Amazon.  The book includes a link to take the test twice! (*I am not affiliated with Amazon and get nothing for including the link in my post, it is purely for you to easily find this book courtesy of me.)

The test was very quick.  You rate yourself and then bam, results are calculated.  Here are mine:

Overall Emotional Intelligence: 79

Personal Competence: 78 The collective power of your self-awareness and self-management skills. It’s how you use emotional intelligence in situations that are more about you privately.

Self-Awareness 75 Your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. This includes keeping on top of how you tend to respond to specific situations and certain people.

Self-Management 81 Your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior. This means managing your emotional reactions to all situations and people.

Social Competence: 79 The combination of your social awareness and relationship management skills. It’s more about how you are with other people.

Social Awareness 77 Your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and get what is really going on. This often means understanding what other people are thinking and feeling, even if you don’t feel the same way.

Relationship Management 81 Your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the emotions of others to manage interactions successfully. Letting emotional awareness guide clear communication and effective handling of conflict.

What does this mean?

Here is what those numbers mean according to them:

90-100
			A STRENGTH TO CAPITALIZE ON
			These scores are much higher than average and indicate a noteworthy strength. These strengths probably come naturally to you, or exist because you have worked hard to develop them. Seize every opportunity to use these emotionally intelligent behaviors to maximize your success. You are highly competent in this skill, so work to capitalize on it and achieve your potential.
80-89
			A STRENGTH TO BUILD ON
			This score is above average. However, there are a few situations where you don’t demonstrate emotionally intelligent behavior. There are many things you’ve done well to receive this score and a few that could be better with some practice. Study the behaviors for which you received this score and consider how you can polish your skills.
70-79
			WITH A LITTLE IMPROVEMENT, THIS COULD BE A STRENGTH
			You are aware of some of the behaviors for which you received this score and you are doing well with them. Other emotionally intelligent behaviors in this group are holding you back. Lots of people start here and see a big improvement in their emotional intelligence once it’s brought to their attention. Use this opportunity to discover the difference and improve in the areas where you don’t do as well.

 

How did I take this?

I can tell you right now, I need to improve upon my emotional awareness.  It is easy to react emotionally and as I have been taking a leadership journey for a few years now, I have started to see how emotions are raw, powerful, and everywhere.  It is difficult to keep emotions out of decision making, especially when you are dealing with other people, however, it is all about learning who you are working with and what needs to get done.  The good news is I am already aware of this so all I need to do is intentionally focus more and continue to hone in on it.  With a little more confidence, I should be good to go.  I am excited to learn more about this in general.

So far, this book discusses the 4 main skills of emotional intelligence and what they mean.  I am going to honor their wishes and read this book as they assign it in this program, I think it will be part of my continuing growing process as a leader (I will leave a full, appropriate review of this book when I am finished).  If any of this has interested you I would highly recommend this book as an insightful read!  If you have read it, let me know what you took away from it overall and if it has helped you out at all!  Thanks for reading!