Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

I will admit that I have a lot to learn around EQ which is firmly grounded in neuroscience, but I wonder why I don’t hear a lot about this from a communication perspective. Obviously, our reaction to information varies based on where we are emotionally. At the simplest level, I think EQ is why guerilla marketing or grass roots marketing can sometimes be so effective. For many people, group interaction and group perceptions drive their behavior.

Daniel Goleman is the author who popularized the EQ term with his book “Emotional Intelligence” published in 1995.

He has identified Five Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence. The first three are personal and the final two are social.

1. Self-Awareness – Knowing one’s internal states, preferences, and intuitions
2. Self-Regulation – Managing one’s internal states, impulses and resources
3. Motivation – Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals
4. Empathy – Awareness of other’s feelings, needs and concerns
5. Social Skills – Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others

After typing these out, I wonder if we could get an EQ score for companies. That would be an interesting ranking to see how aware and empathetic companies really are.

I liked this image I found that represents Executive EQ or EQ for Business.

So, I think the key question here is how could we capture an individual’s EQ (or a proxy for it) and use that in our targeting and messaging to them about healthcare.