EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotions are created and managed in two separate parts of our brain.
Our first response to a situation is a raw animal emotion that's
created in a structure in our brains called the amygdala. This impulsive
reaction is then managed in another region of the brain involved
in consciousness called the prefrontal cortex. The left prefrontal
cortex deals with hope/optimism and the right prefrontal cortex
with stress/depression. Brain scanning can show whether you have
activity in the left or right cortex.
It is in the prefrontal cortex that we decide how to act on our
feelings. So emotional intelligence depends on how we turn these
raw emotions into considered actions.
People with high EI have good control of the amygdala which controls
fear and anxiety. Emotionally intelligent people (especially trusting
people) emit certain brain chemicals that we can test for and those
who handle feelings well have a good Alpha rhythm (or heart rate
variability - the spaces between their heart beats).
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (or EI) is a combination of skills, attitudes
and habits that distinguish superior performance from run-of-the-mill
performance both in life as a whole and at work. It is made up of
two parts:
Intrapersonal Intelligence: being intelligent in picking
up what is going on inside us (Self Awareness) and doing what we
need to do about it (Self Management).
Interpersonal Intelligence: being intelligent in picking
up what is going on in other people and between people (Other Awareness)
and doing what we need to do about that (Relationship Management).
Just how well do you handle confrontation and conflict? And how
would you cope with a more personal attack?
The Test
We decided to test our ten contestants Emotional Intelligence
without them even knowing!
We arranged for each of them to be individually interviewed by
journalists about taking part in Superhuman. What they didn't know
was that our journalists were actors, the room was rigged with hidden
cameras and our experts were analysing their every move for their
emotional skills.
The first part of our test looked at how our contestants handle
conflict. Just how would they cope with being accused of being late
for their interviews by our aggressive journalists?
The second part of our Test looks at Emotional Resilience. How
will our contestants deal with a personal attack?
Our contestants initially completed a confidential written psychological
assessment which looked at various aspects of their personal effectiveness.
This was used to compare and contrast with how well they coped with
our interviews to test EI scales such as self awareness, relationships
with others and the ability to control emotions.
The Experts
Our experts were occupational psychologists:
John
Cooper MSc, BSc (Hons), C. Psychol.
Jolyon
Maddocks MSc, BSc (Hons), C.Psychol.
Why Is It Superhuman To Have Good EI?
Quite simply, successful people have good EI.
Good EI skills distinguish successful people from the run-of-the-mill.
In today's world, it is more important than ever to be stress tolerant,
self-motivated and creative in order to perform well. Indeed, there
is significant evidence showing a link between strong performance
at work and high emotional intelligence.
In Superhuman, we specifically scored our contestants in three
distinct areas:
- Conflict Handling: how did they copy when our journalists
accused them of being late when they weren't
- Emotional Resilience: how did they react when our journalists
openly criticised them and picked on their weak spot (which we
had previously worked out from their psychological assessment)
and
- Other Awareness: how did they handle the journalist,
and could they turn the interview around.
The 16 EI Areas
In fact, there are 16 scales of EI ranging from relationship skills
to conflict handling:
1. Self Regard: could they accept a compliment gracefully?
How assertive were they when they were put down (e.g. when our journalist
interviewers made a derogatory comment about them)
2. Regard for Others: how well did they listen if the journalist
began waffling on? Did they judge or attack the interviewer easily.
What were their listening skills like: just how closely did they
listen?
3. Self Awareness: we compared their behaviour in the interviews
with what they actually wrote about themselves in our psychological
assessment.
4. Awareness of Others: how well did they read other people's
emotions?
5. Emotional Resilience: how good were they at picking themselves
up after a setback or stressful situation?
6. Personal Power: How powerless did they feel? Did they
set their goals too high or too low.
7 Goal Directedness: this looks at our contestants' impulse
control. How well did they control their emotions, were they easily
distracted and were they motivated? In fact you can wind someone
up and see how they control their anger.
8. Flexibility: how rigid were they to new ideas and suggestions?
9. Personal Openness: when our journalists asked them something
intimate, how open were they about their life? Were they empathetic
when someone opens up to them or did they clam up (so we asked our
interviewers to tell them something inappropriately intimate and
we then watched how they dealt with it)
10. Trustworthiness: how much of themselves did they reveal
in the interview? Did they keep their promises? Were they honest?
Could they be relied upon?
11. Trust: Did they trust others too easily or did they
find it difficult to trust others?
12 Balanced Outlook: Were they over optimistic or too pessimistic?
13: Emotional Expression and Control: how empathetic were
they in when our journalist seemed upset?
14: Conflict Handling: when our journalist intentionally
winds them up, did they react assertively, aggressively or passively?
15: Interdependence: were they too dependent or too independent?
16: Self Assessment: how did they evaluate themselves and
others.
Scoring
Our experts carefully analysed each contestant's behaviour during
the interviews and compared them with their written psychological
assessments. The contestant who scores high on the assessment may
not necessarily do well in the interview.
Our Superhuman was the person who our experts believed rated the
best in our three key areas of EI: conflict handling, emotional
resilience and awareness of others.
Click here to see the
final results >
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