Author: Gavin Bradbury

When emotional intelligence was first talked about and presented to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time. This research and the data it produced challenged what many people had always assumed was the sole source of success – IQ. Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the main factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. That ‘thing’ you can’t quite put your finger on. It affects how we behave, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that fall into two main brackets: personal competence and social competence. Personal competence is your self-awareness and self-management skills, which is more about you individually rather than how you interact with other people. It’s your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and how you tend to act on a daily basis. Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior. Social competence is made up of your social awareness...