Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own and others' emotions, and to use them effectively in various situations. EI can help you improve your relationships, communication, leadership, and well-being. But how can you measure your EI and trust the results?
Emotional intelligence tests are assessments that aim to measure your EI skills and competencies. They can be self-report or ability-based, depending on the type of questions and tasks they involve. Self-report tests ask you to rate your own emotional behaviors and attitudes, while ability-based tests require you to perform tasks that demonstrate your emotional reasoning and perception. Some examples of emotional intelligence tests are the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), and the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (EIA).
The abundance of resources and assessments can be overwhelming with how abundant they are, so when beginning your journey for EI improvement, remember that one that you can relate to consistently and with ease is really important. Whatever test or assessment you choose, most importantly you must be able to apply what you’re learning - I would prioritise these 2 skills 1. One to identify emotions: How you tend to experience difficult emotions and your typical responses to them. 2. One to respond to emotions: One strategy for how you will regulate and learn those emotions when they arise. I am all for developing understanding awareness of your EI skills through assessments - but nothing beats doing.
The reliability of emotional intelligence tests depends on several factors, such as the validity of the test, the consistency of the scoring, the standardization of the administration, and the quality of the feedback. A valid test measures what it claims to measure, and has evidence to support its claims. A consistent test produces similar results when repeated under similar conditions. A standardized test follows clear and uniform procedures for administering and scoring the test. A quality feedback provides useful and actionable information for the test taker.
Improving your emotional intelligence test results is not a matter of memorizing answers or tricks, but of enhancing your EI skills and competencies through practice and feedback. To do so, you can seek feedback from others on your emotional strengths and weaknesses and use it to set goals and monitor your progress. Reading books, articles, and blogs on EI, taking online courses or attending workshops or coaching sessions on EI, practicing mindfulness or other techniques to manage stress, emotions, and thoughts, as well as engaging in activities that challenge you emotionally - such as volunteering or mentoring - are all ways to improve your emotional intelligence.
Your emotional intelligence test results can offer you insight into your EI skills and competencies, as well as how they impact your personal and professional life. With these results, you can identify your EI strengths and areas for improvement, and plan how to leverage or enhance them. Additionally, you can compare your EI to others, such as colleagues or leaders, to learn from their best practices or feedback. Furthermore, you can align your EI with your values, goals, and aspirations to ensure they are congruent and supportive of each other. Lastly, you can communicate your EI to others to showcase how it can benefit them or the organization.
The greatest benefit to EI tests is self-awareness. Learning about your tendencies, preferences, and strategies for how we deal with life’s ups and downs. Use your results to: - Learn about how you respond to difficult emotions, and how you can more productively do so. - Learn about emotions in general to improve your social intelligence and how to better understand others. Everyone relates to emotions slightly differently. EI is a self-management measure, and should be about improving how you respond to emotions, rather than forcing others to respond in a way you prefer. Use your awareness of emotions to improve how you deal with emotions - in yourself and others.
Emotional intelligence tests are not perfect or definitive measures of your EI, and they have some limitations that you should be aware of. For instance, they may not capture the full range and complexity of EI skills and competencies, or how they vary across contexts and cultures. Additionally, these tests can be impacted by your mood, motivation, or expectations, as well as external factors such as the test environment, format, or timing. Furthermore, they may be subject to biases such as social desirability, self-enhancement, or self-deprecation that can affect how you respond to the test questions or tasks. Lastly, they may not provide enough guidance or support for how to interpret or apply your test results.
Like most of us who have ever done tests and examinations - we’d be familiar with how tests don’t typically translate into real world application. Why not? Things are a lot more variable in real time. I believe that dealing with emotions are like a contact sport. So no amount of preparation, knowledge, tests, are ever going to prepare you for what you’re facing in real time. Additionally, we are not our emotions. So what we feel at one point of time may not be what we will always feel. The results of the test vary depending on our emotionality at a certain time - that will affect your responses to an assessment. An assessment is frozen in time, and maybe not be indicative of you as you grow in experiences and knowledge.
It’s never really about the test results, as much as what you do with them. If you’re apprehensive about taking a test, I’m all for it too. Here’s my favourite simple way to get started. 1. Learn about how you regulate difficult emotions. We all have an unproductive way which we approach difficult emotions. Learn about yours. You can find resources online to help you discover your tendency. 2. Pick one regulation skill you’d like to practice. Depending on how you typically approach emotions, pick one skill to work on. A skill for dealing with difficult emotions more productively. Choose one and practice as often as possible till it comes naturally to you. Doing beats reading about every single time. Enough tests, go do.