Using Emotional Intelligence (EQ) to Review your Year
How to review your performance this year using Emotional Intelligence (EQ) to help personal growth and get better results
If you’re about to review your performance over the last year or so, you could try doing so through an Emotional Intelligence (or EQ) lens.
EQ is one of my favourite ways of looking at how well I’m doing, because it suits a behavioural approach (my actions and their impact). It supports a deeper understand of what drives those actions and what does or doesn’t make them effective in my interactions with others. Plus, there’s research to show that high levels of EQ are correlated with individual success and performance in a work context.
Although definitions vary, in my view you could regard Emotional Intelligence as the ability to be aware of and manage our own feelings and emotions, to be aware of and able to influence other people and to balance behaviours which benefit us individually with those that benefit the team and organisation.
If you want to have a go at reviewing your own performance in EQ terms over the year, click-on and download the blank spider chart at the top of this article and then score yourself on the following seven elements. These come from one of my preferred models of EQ, established by two British authors from Henley Management College in their book Making sense of emotional intelligence.
Score yourself from 0 – 10 and then mark it in the chart. See my example below if you’re unfamiliar with this kind of spider chart.
How well do you feel you did during the last year?
- Self-Awareness
The awareness of your own feelings and the ability to recognise and manage these. - Emotional Resilience
The ability to perform well and consistently in a range of situations and when under pressure. - Motivation
The drive and energy which you have to achieve results, balance short and long-term goals and pursue your goals in the face of challenge and rejection. - Interpersonal Sensitivity
The ability to be aware of the needs and feelings of others and to use this awareness effectively in interacting with them and arriving at decisions impacting on them. - Influence
The ability to persuade others to change their viewpoints on a problem, issue or decision. - Intuitiveness
The ability to use insight and interaction to arrive at and implement decisions when faced with ambiguous or incomplete information. - Conscientiousness and Integrity
The ability to display commitment to a course of action in the face of challenge, to act consistently and in line with understood ethical requirements.
Here’s my own; got some work to do on actually seeing stuff through to completion and being more considerate of how my actions affect others.