Using your EQ to Enhance Resilience

Kathy AshtonHead of People Development

Leeds Metropolitan University

Learning outcomes

• Develop an understanding of how emotional intelligence impacts on resilience.

• Assess your own emotional quotient.

• Produce a personal action plan for developing your resilience.

Definitions – EQ

“The ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions .”Salovey and Mayer

“The innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, describe, identify, learn from, manage, understand and explain emotions.”Hein

Definition: Background reading

Why is EQ important?

• Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ in almost every role and many times more important in leadership roles (Stephen Covey)

• A survey of managers in a UK supermarket chain revealed that those with high EQ experienced less stress, enjoyed better health, performed better and reported a better work/life balance (UMIST, 2001)

• Police officers who are able to identify and manage emotions report lower levels of stress (Goldsmiths College, 2000)

The 15 EQi Facets

• Intra Personal– Self regard– Emotional Self Awareness– Assertiveness– Independence– Self Actualization

• Inter Personal– Empathy– Social Responsibility– Interpersonal Relationships

• Stress Management– Stress Tolerance– Impulse Control

The 15 EQi Facets

• Adaptability– Reality Testing– Flexibility– Problem Solving

• NB. Reuven Bar-On

• General Mood– Optimism– Happiness

The ability to respect and accept yourself

Self-regard

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”Aristotle

Emotional self-awareness

The ability to recognize your feelings, to differentiate between them, to know why you are feeling these feelings, and to recognize the impact your feelings have on others around you

Emotional self-awareness

The ability to express feelings, beliefs and thoughts openly and stand up for personal rights

Assertiveness

The ability to be self-directed and self-controlled in your thinking and actions

Independence

The ability to recognize your potential capacities by becoming involved in pursuits that lead to a meaningful, rich and full life

Self-actualization

The ability to demonstrate that you are a co-operative, contributing and constructive member of your social group

Social responsibility

The ability to be aware of, to understand and to appreciate the feelings and thoughts of others

Empathy

The ability to establish and maintain mutually satisfying relationships that are characterized by intimacy and by giving and receiving affection

Interpersonal relationships

The ability to assess the correspondence between what’s expected and what objectively exists

Reality testing

The ability to adjust your emotions, thoughts and behaviour to changing situations and conditions

Flexibility

The ability to identify and define problems as well as to generate and implement potentially effective solutions

Problem solving

The ability to withstand adverse events and stressful situations without developing physical or emotional symptoms by actively and positively coping with stress

Stress tolerance

The ability to resist or delay an impulse, drive, or temptation to act

Impulse control

The ability to feel satisfied with your life, to enjoy yourself and others and to have fun

Happiness

The ability to look at the brighter side of life and to maintain a positive attitude, even in the face of adversity

Optimism

Staff Developers and EQ!

• What do you think are the five most important factors for

developers/trainers?

(star performers)

Staff Developers

1. Self-Regard

2. Interpersonal Relationships

3. Assertiveness

4. Self-Actualization

5. Happiness

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” Nelson Mandela

Resilience

Emotional Resilience

• Emotional Resilience may be described as ‘the general capacity for flexible and resourceful adaptation to external and internal stressors’ (Klohen, 1996).

• Emotional Resilience refers to effective coping and adaptation when faced with hardship and adversity (Collins, 2008).

• Emotional Resilience has been characterized by an ability to experience and ‘bounce back’ from negative emotional experiences by adaptation, to check the changing demands of stressful experiences (Tugade and Fredrickson, 2004).

Four Key Components of Personal Resilience (Robertson Cooper, n.d.)

Exercise: building resilience

• In pairs, consider the 15 Eqi facets and consider which are worth developing in order to improve your resilience?

Why do people have different levels of resilience?• The American Psychological Association (n.d) believes that a number of factors

influence a person’s level of resilience and might also explain why resilience levels differ from person to person. It cites the factors as:

1. Capacity to make realistic plans and to take steps to carry them out (self-actualization)

2. Holding a positive and optimistic view of oneself (optimism)

3. Having confidence in one’s strengths and abilities (self-regard)

4. Possessing strong communication and problem solving skills (interpersonal relationship; problem-solving)

5. Capacity to manage strong feelings, emotions and impulses (emotional self- awareness; impulse control)

Free EQ Test

http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121