Emotional intelligence: concepts, measurement, and applications

Psychology

Emotional Intelligence

Individual Development Plans are an excellent way for a person to develop and motivate themselves. Professors can help their students to improve their job skills and become more effective and productive by encouraging a focused approach to their individual training and developmental needs. Professors who promote the use of IDP's also send a clear message to their students that they view each person's professional development as a priority. If done properly these can be a good motivator for most people (Jacobson, 2008).

In doing an IDP a person should try to identify developmental opportunities that will help them to build on their strengths. Developmental occasions can take many forms, and a mix of training and experiential learning should be included. Besides formal training in a classroom setting other excellent developmental opportunities include mentoring, distance learning through the internet, assignment to a project team, cross-training and involvement in outreach efforts (Jacobson, 2008).

Developing a good Individual Development Plan consists of many steps. The first thing that a person needs is a goal. There needs to be some kind of reason to develop. If there's no reason to improve or no motivation, then there's no reason to have an IDP (How to Write a Great Individual Development Plan (IDP), 2008). My goal is to improve my leadership skills. In developing leadership skills a person must first explore their Emotional intelligence. EI consists of the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate one's emotions (Van Wagner, 2010). Emotional Intelligence is made up of five basic competencies. Emotional self-awareness, emotional control and self-management, empathy, self-motivation, and the ability to manage relationships with other people (Emotional Intelligence Competencies, 2005).

These Emotional Intelligence competencies determine how we manage ourselves. Self-Awareness is the knowing of one's internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions. Emotional Awareness consists of recognizing one's emotions and their effects. Accurate Self-assessment is the process of knowing one's strengths and limits. Self-confidence is a strong sense of one's self-worth and capacities (Emotional Intelligence Competencies, 2005).

Self-Regulation is the managing of one's internal states, impulses and resources. This is made up of self-control which is keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check, trustworthiness which is maintaining standards of honesty and integrity, conscientiousness which is the taking of responsibility for personal performance, adaptability which is the flexibility in handling change, innovation which is being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches and new information (Emotional Intelligence Competencies, 2005).

Self-motivation consists of the emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate us in reaching goals. These tendencies include:

Being achievement drive: striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence.

An organizational commitment: aligning with the goals of the group or organization.

Having initiative: readiness to act on opportunities.

Having optimism: persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.

Social Competencies determine how we handle relationships. Social Awareness and Empathy is the awareness of other's feelings, needs and concerns. This is carried out by understanding others by sensing others' feelings and perspectives and taking an active interest in their concerns, developing others in sensing others' development needs and encouraging their abilities, being service oriented by anticipating, recognizing and meeting customers' needs, leveraging diversity by cultivating opportunities through different kinds of people and having political awareness by reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships (Emotional Intelligence Competencies, 2005).

Social Skills include the adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others. These skills include:

Communication -- being able to listen openly and send convincing messages.

Conflict Management - settling and resolving disagreements.

Change Catalyst - initiating or managing change.

Building bonds - nurturing instrumental relationships.

Collaboration and co-operation - working with others towards a shared goal.

Team abilities - creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

Influence: - exerting effective tactics for persuasion.

Leadership: exciting and guiding individuals and groups (Emotional Intelligence Competencies, 2005).

The focus of my Individual Development Plan is to work on increasing my leadership skills. Leadership skills are important in both the academic world as well as in the business world. Those people who have strong leadership skills tend to be very successful at whatever they do. I really want to work hard at improving my skills so that I can be seen as a strong leader in everything that I do. The first thing that I need to do in developing my plan is to pick the specific things that I want to work on and then come up with an action plan on how to go about working on them. I also need to decide on the time frame that I am going to set down for working on my action items and determine if there are any costs involved with them. Once this is all done then the plan needs to be documented so that I can keep track of my progress as I move forward.

Developmental Objectives: What do I need to do to work towards my goal?

1. I need to work on my oral communication skills.

2. I need to work on my team building skills.

3. I need to work on conflict management skills.

Developmental Activities What things I need to accomplish to reach my goal

1. Volunteer to give a speech about a topic in class or take a communications class in order to improve my skills.

2. Volunteer to lead a team-based project so that I can improve my skills surrounding teams.

3. Attend a seminar on conflict resolution so that I can better learn how to deal with conflict.