Emotional Intelligence and Women Groups
Turning EIQ into a Women Group’s Strategy for Success
Emotional intelligence is gaining recognition as an important skill for successful people in the business world and in life. There are disagreements about whether the term applies to a learned set of skills including initiative, empathy, adaptability, and persuasiveness – all ways things that affect how successfully people can interact with others – or if it applies to an internal ability to recognize our own emotions, manage them as opposed to be driven by them, and use that inward knowledge to establish more effective practices. But both ideas have value for women in groups hoping to work towards personal and emotional growth, and to convert that growth into external success and professional development.
Whether on an online meeting place for women or in fact to face women’s groups, developing emotional intelligence (EIQ) is an enjoyable and fulfilling activity. Some think of this as a type of intelligence that is more the purview of women, but that assumption usually rests on a narrow construction of what constitutes EIQ. Daniel Goleman, author of Working with Emotional Intelligence, says that men with a high EIQ are “socially poised, outgoing, cheerful, have a noticeable capacity for commitment to people or causes, and are sympathetic in their relationships.” EIQ in women manifests itself as confidence in expression and communication of feelings, a positive sense of self, and are outgoing and gregarious. They express their feelings appropriately rather than in outbursts, rarely feel guilty or anxious, or sink into rumination.
In other words, Golemen sees EIQ as representing inter and intrapersonal skills, and holds that there is a large overlap in the ways emotionally intelligent men and women behave. With these attributes becoming increasingly desirable in leaders alongside traditionally respected skills such as the ability to make quick decisions and take charge, women are poised to take advantage of this shift in values and societal beliefs that women have higher EIQ. However, it is still important for women groups to discuss examples of these skills concretely and consider ways to practice them in everyday life so that when it matters, individual women will be able to confidently manifest their EIQ.
