Emotional intelligence

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, was the first to popularize the trait emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as EI. Emotional intelligence is a person’s capacity to be aware of her or his emotions and feelings towards others to influence their thinking and actions. The four components of EI are:

• Self-awareness: This is your ability to read your own emotions accurately to know how your actions or lack thereof affect others.
• Self-management: This is your ability to control or regulate your emotions and act with integrity.
• Social-awareness: Gives you the ability to understand the needs of others and show empathy towards them.
• Relationship management: this is your ability to communicate clearly and convincingly, reduce conflict and build strong bonds.

Step 2 – Post a Response

Respond to the following.

1. How has your emotional intelligence, or lack of emotional intelligence, positively or negatively impacted your professional or personal relationships?

1. Choose one of the components of EI and explain how it contributes to job      satisfaction.

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Discussion 4

Motivation is the psychological process that arouses and directs behavior. There are three theories that will help us understand the motivation of employees in the workplace:

• Goal-setting theory suggests behavior can be motivated with specific,      challenging goals that are obtainable. The key to goal-setting theory is ensuring employees understand what is expected and accept the goals.
• Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s personal ability to do a task.There is a lot to be said to scoring high in this trait. People who are confident about their ability tend to succeed, whereas those who doubt their ability tend to fail.
• Reinforcement theory explains how behavior can be altered by administering      positive or negative consequences to actions of employees. Behavior with      positive consequences tends to be repeated, and behavior with negative      consequences tends not to be repeated.

Step 2 – Post a Response

Respond to the following.

• Take a moment to think about what it would take to motivate you to achieve your goals at work, which theory would you use and why?

• In reflecting on either an experience at work or with a family or friend, how can you motive them to achieve the goals in their lives? Which motivational theory would you use and why?