Emotional Intelligence Myth #3: You can measure emotional intelligence

A new tweet recently appeared in my TOPSY In-tray: 15 Great Interview Questions That Measure Emotional Intelligence https://t.co/VqFM7DJdSP written by Jacquelyn Smith, a New York based business reporter.  The article provoked two questions:

1.      Do the 15 questions help you measure Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

2.      Is EQ something you can measure?

As an example here are two of the questions from the article:

1.      How good are you at accepting help from others?

2.      On an “average day” would you consider yourself a high or low energy person?

These two questions are typical of most questionnaires that purport to measure EQ.  They are self-reporting questions where you are asked to rate your own emotional ability.  Unfortunately abilities cannot be accurately measured with self-reports.  Suppose you want to find out how good someone is mathematically.  Would you ask the person ‘How good are you at solving algebraic equations?’ or get the person to actually solve an algebraic equation.”

Another methodology is use some variant of 360-Degree Assessment and ask other people if they think you have emotion intelligence by asking such questions as:

Are you able to read people well. Do you manage emotions effectively. Do you understand my emotions.

Not True  Somewhat True Very True Not True  Somewhat True Very True Not True  Somewhat True Very True

Unfortunately such ratings of your behaviour are based upon on their own observations, as well as their own biases. They don't see you in all situations. They don't know how you think, or what you feel. Only you know that.  Observers if they are a competitive peer may have an axe to grind or if they report to you will only provide a flattering portrait.

Part of the problem is in the definition of emotional intelligence.  Salovey & Mayer who coined the term defined it as the ability to perceive, understand and manage emotions.  This led them to develop the MSCEIT (the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test which is based on a series of emotion-based problem-solving items where your score is based on how a majority would answer them.  Although promoted as an ability test, the MSCEIT is unlike standard IQ tests in that its items do not have objectively correct responses. Among other challenges, the consensus scoring criterion means that it is impossible to create items (questions) that only a minority of respondents can solve, because, by definition, responses are deemed emotionally "intelligent" only if the majority of the sample has endorsed them.

Hence I favour a different definition based on Goleman’s four steps:

Emotional Intelligence is achieving self- and social mastery by being smart with core emotions.

Self-Mastery = Awareness + Management (Steps 1 & 2 as defined by Goleman)

Social Mastery = Empathy + Social Skills (Steps 3 &4 as defined by Goleman

The key to emotional intelligence is to understand your core emotions compared to your transient emotions.  Your core emotions are driven by your temperament – what you are genetically born with.  Based on a study of 11,000 identical twins nature is around twice as important as nurture.  I have found the Humm-Wadsworth model of seven core emotions the most practical tool for people to use and once understood (takes a day) dramatically lifts their emotional intelligence.  They learn what are the core emotions that are dominant in their own temperament, and how to recognise the dominant core emotions in other people and how to handle them.

By the way in passing let me add that the 15 questions posed in Jacquelyn Smith’s article would be an excellent addition to any interviewer’s tool-kit.