Learn: How to create Emotional Intelligence Test and Measure your Emotional Quotient (EQ)

Learn: How to create Emotional Intelligence Test and Measure your Emotional Quotient (EQ)

?What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand and manage emotions in ourselves and others. Emotional Intelligence is divided into the four clusters of Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management (often referred to very broadly as “people skills” ). Daniel Goleman has identified that successful managers and leaders possess a high percentage of emotional intelligence. By successful he meant those who have; achieved better financial results, developed more effective and supportive organizational climates or culture and achieved higher productivity gains with their workforce. Goleman’s ?findings also indicated that Emotional Intelligence contributes 80 to 90% of the competencies that distinguish outstanding leaders from average leaders.

?By the way, what is the Emotion?

?The emotion is a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions that he suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The emotions he identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. He later expanded his list of basic emotions to include such things as pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement. The list has been expanding ever since, and a lot of emotions are included such as, Acceptance, Affection, Amusement, Anger, Angst, Anguish, Annoyance, Anticipation, Anxiety, Apathy, Arousal, Awe, Boredom, Confidence, Contempt, Contentment, Courage, Curiosity, Depression, Desire, Despair, Disappointment, Disgust, Distrust, Doubt, Ecstasy, Embarrassment, Empathy, Enthusiasm, Envy, Euphoria, Faith, Fear, Frustration, Gratification, Gratitude, Greed, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Hatred, Hope, Horror, Hostility, Humiliation, Interest, Jealousy, Joy, Kindness, Loneliness, Love, Lust, Nostalgia, Outrage, Panic, Passion, Pity, Pleasure, Pride, Rage, Regret, Rejection, Remorse, Resentment, Sadness, Self-confidence, Self-pity, Shame, Shock, Shyness, Social connection, Sorrow, Suffering, Surprise, Trust, Wonder, Worry.

Emotions arise naturally and emotions are powerful, it's important to acknowledge your feelings while also recognizing that your emotions don't have to control you. An emotionally intelligent person is expected to control and manage his/her emotions and react in a certain manner. On the other hand controlling your emotions is not same as suppressing them. Emotional Quotient or EQ is the measure of emotional intelligence. An individual with high EQ posses high self esteem and self confidence, is able to maintain peace with others, keep to time, be responsible, be honest, respect boundaries, be humble, genuine and considerate.

?IQ versus EQ

EQ is a numerical expression or a quantified index of Emotional Intelligence of individual.

?IQ, short for intelligence quotient, is a measure of a person’s reasoning ability. In short, it is supposed to gauge how well someone can use information and logic to answer questions or make predictions.

?In professional and technical fields the typical entry-level threshold IQ is 110 to 120. It is generally considered that your IQ, which is largely genetic, will change little from childhood. Since everyone is in the top 10% or so of intelligence category, IQ itself offers relatively little competitive advantage. EQ on the other hand can be learned at any age therefore EQ can grow at any point of your life and career. Growing your competency in EQ is not easy or quick, as it takes perseverance in the process of critical self-evaluation, commitment to improvement and of course behavioral practice.

?It is also important to note, that competence in Emotional Intelligence does not necessarily increase with age as you might expect. Some people may learn from life’s experiences, but many do not.

?How to increase your EQ? People can increase emotional intelligence by learning to:

• Reduce negative emotions
• Stay cool and manage stress
• Be assertive and express difficult emotions when necessary
• Stay proactive, not reactive in the face of a difficult person
• Bounce back from adversity
• Express intimate emotions in close, personal relationships

Creating a Questionnaire for measuring Emotional Quotient

?There are 4 sets of skills or 4 clusters included in Emotional Intelligence and each cluster is further divided in sub categories of skills. To calculate EQ (Emotional Quotient) or measure Emotional Intelligence the sub categories of skills are assessed by self assessment questions/items which are designed to obtain answers on a 5 point rating scale. The main 4 behavioral factors of EQ are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management which are further divided into sub behavioral factors. By assessing these behavioral factors, the test generates an EQ (emotional quotient) score. EQ is used in conjunction with emotional intelligence. An average EQ score ranges from 91-110, with a perfect score measuring 160.

??A.????Self-Awareness

The core of Emotional Intelligence is self-awareness. Self-awareness is comprised of three competencies;

?1.?????Emotional self-awareness, where you are able to read and understand your emotions as well as recognize their impact on work performance and relationships;

?Sample Items/ Questions for measuring Emotional self-awareness:

?2.?????Accurate self-assessment, where you are able to give a realistic evaluation of your strengths and limitations;

?3.?????Self-confidence, where you have a positive and strong sense of one’s self-worth.

B.????Self-Management

Self-management is comprised of five competencies;

?1.?????Self-control, which is keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control;

2.?????Transparency/Trustworthiness, which is maintaining standards of honesty and integrity, managing yourself and responsibilities;

3.?????Adaptability, which is the flexibility in adapting to changing situations and overcoming obstacles;

4.?????Achievement orientation, which is the guiding drive to meet an internal standard of excellence;

5.?????Initiative, which is the readiness to seize opportunities and act.

C.?????Social Awareness

Social Awareness is comprised of three competencies;

1.?????Empathy, which is about understanding others and taking an active interest in their concerns;

2.?????Organizational awareness, which is the ability to read the currents of organizational life, build decision networks and navigate politics;

3.?????Service orientation, which is recognizing and meeting customers’ needs.

D.????Relationship Management

The Social cluster of Relationship Management is comprised of seven competencies;

1. Visionary leadership, which is inspiring and guiding groups and individuals;

?2. Developing others, which is the propensity to strengthen and support the abilities of others through feedback and guidance;

3. Influence, which is the ability to exercise a wide range of persuasive strategies with integrity, and also includes listening and sending clear, convincing and well-tuned messages;

4.?????Change catalyst, which is the proficiency in initiating new ideas and leading people in a new direction;

5.?????Conflict management, which is resolving disagreements and collaboratively developing resolutions;

6.?????Building bonds, which is building and maintaining relationships with others;

7.?????Teamwork and collaboration, which is the promotion of cooperation and building of teams.

?Interpreting the Data/ Measuring Emotional Quotient

?We have obtained responses of an individual for carrying out sample interpretation of the data and for calculating Emotional Quotient (EQ).

?In statics, 5 point rating scale is known as a Likert Scale (Likert scale rating system is used in questionnaires, that is designed to measure people's attitudes, opinions, or perceptions). A Likert scale assumes that the strength/intensity of an attitude is linear, i.e. on a continuum from strongly disagree to strongly agree, (In our case, the level of individual’s skills are assumed on a continuum from “Underdeveloped to Excellent”) and makes the assumption that attitudes can be measured and quantified. From a statistical standpoint, this suggested an interval level of measurement. Rather than analyzing the individual items, Likert combined the individual items via summation or taking the arithmetic mean.

Well, let’s forget expert statistical analysis, and let’s try to develop an easy to understand guide for interpretation of responses so it can also be used by the layman.

?Remember, an average EQ ranges from 91-110, with a perfect score measuring 160. We have used total 67 items/questions with a 5 point rating scale.

?Putting weight of scores to the recorded responses on the 5 point rating scale

?Score for response – 5 = 160 x 5 / 67 x 5 = 2.39

?Score for response – 4 = 2.39/5 x 4 = 1.91

?Score for response – 3 = 2.39/5 x 3 = 1.43

?Score for response – 2 = 2.39/5 x 2 = .96

?Score for response – 1 = 2.39/5 x 1 = .48

?Now that we know the weight of scores for each response, let’s put the scores in above table.

What does the total score mean?

?Table of score interpretation:

As per above table and interpretation guide, the individual who was tested and who scored 107.01 (Emotional Quotient=107.01 or round off 107) falls under the category of adequate so he/she is an average emotionally intelligent person.

Disclaimer: The above test is solely designed for educational purpose to acquaint readers on creating emotional intelligence test and measuring Emotional Quotient.