Emotional Intelligence and Your Profession: exclusive interview of Prof NK Chadha, Psychologist

 

Emotional Intelligence and Your Profession:

DO DIFFERENT JOBS REQUIRE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EQ? 

 Interview Prof NK Chadha, Psychologist

THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVANT interviewed Prof NK Chadha, an eminent psychologist from University of Delhi, India, about emotional intelligence (EI) or emotional quotient (EQ) and its relevance in today’s times for civil services and corporate world. The excerpts;

 

Learn to use your emotions to your advantage. You will be a different person?

Q: Do different professions require different amount of emotional intelligence or it is a myth?

 

        NK Chadha: In today’s business world, management pundits have always wondered whether different professions exhibit different emotional intelligence levels or not. The answer is that different jobs require different levels of EQ. It is now recognized that emotional intelligence plays an important role in many areas of life, including work. Some jobs require and some do not, the emotional skills to succeed. So it is a reality and not a myth.

 Q: Will you please elaborate this with easy examples for our readers?

 

        NK Chadha: Jobs that can be accomplished individually or by working with others in fixed, set or structured ways do not require a great deal of emotional intelligence. For instance, success in painting or professional tennis may require more self-discipline and motivation, and less EQ. Jobs which demand interaction with other people, or working in informal teams, or empathizing with and understanding others are the ones that require emotional intelligence. If you lack the requisite level of emotional intelligence, you may not only find such jobs difficult to cope with, but also less satisfying. Success in sales requires the empathic ability to gauge a customer’s mood and the interpersonal skill to decide when to pitch a product and when to keep quiet. There are professions that require interacting with people, working in teams or having informal relationships. For example, leaders may need a higher degree of EQ because of the very nature of their job, which requires them to interact with a large number of people, and empathize and understand their needs and desires. Experience shows that success in sales requires an ability to judge clients’ moods and the emotional skill to decide when to promote the product and when to keep quiet. Such professions may be satisfying only when one has the requisite level of emotional intelligence.

 

Q: Are you advocating that leaders with high EQ are star performers as compared to others?

 

        NK Chadha: YES. A high EQ can set you apart from your colleagues and lead you to other forms of success at the workplace. Some professions may exhibit a great deal of emotional intelligence while others may not. There are professions that require interacting with people, work­ing in teams or having informal relationships. For example, leaders may need a higher degree of EQ because of the very nature of their job, which requires them to interact with a large number of people, and empathize and understand their needs and desires.

 Q: Do professionals working in sales or marketing need to have higher level of EQ?

        NK Chadha: In Sales and marketing the research shows that success requires an ability to judge clients’ moods and the emotional skill to decide when to promote the product and when to keep quiet. Such professions may be satis­fying only when one has the requisite level of emotional intelli­gence. The professions like, insurance, advertisement and social work require extremely high level of EQ to accomplish task. These professions may need to ex­press feelings, identify and label feelings and manage and control impulses. These professions may also require interpreting emotional cues that may influence social behaviour. These are also the professions that require use of non-verbal skills such as communicating through eye contact, facial expression, and tone of voice or gestures. For example, it is the job of an insurance salesperson to approach prospective clients to sell insurance policies. Experience shows that a number of people slam the door on the salespersons’ faces, resulting in a feeling of acute frustration. It is, therefore, under­standable that this profession requires an extremely high level of EQ to help an insurance salesman re-access his/her capabilities and evolve fresh strategies to overcome similar feelings in the future. An insurance salesperson, therefore, needs to be an optimist; an impor­tant emotional competence and one with high EQ will take failure as a challenge without getting demoralized. A US-based national insurance company has also found that salesmen who were weak in emotional competencies such as self confidence, initiative and empathy sold less number of policies but those very strong on these emotional competencies sold more policies adding more revenue to the company.

Similarly, teaching and police require a high level of EQ. For example, the teaching profession requires emotional competencies such as rapport, harmony and comfort while dealing with groups. A teacher with high IQ may not necessarily be high in these emotional competencies. Hence, teachers with high EQ seem to exhibit open and free expression of ideas that lead them to creativity and mutual respect. In the police profession, a person has to constantly work under stress emanating from threat to life, while encountering criminal elements and dealing with communal clashes. The police officer is expected to handle the situation tactfully and the job requires firmness and empathy in appropriate doses. A police officer with high EQ knows how to manage emotions of people, emotions of victims in difficult times such as ethnic clashes, rape, political demonstrations and student strikes. Political leaders, as well as successful businessmen/entrepreneurs, advocates, and the people engaged in tourism are supposed to be high on EQ.

 Q: This means there are jobs which may NOT require high EQ and even an average or moderate EQ can be beneficial?

 

        NK Chadha: YES. In Contrast, there are jobs that can be executed individually in structured or fixed ways may not require a great deal of emotional intelligence. For instance, success in painting or professional ten­nis may require more self-discipline and motivation, and less EQ.  For example, there are professions such as judiciary, administration, information technology, medicine, banking, engi­neering, accountancy which require moderate scores level of EQ. This is indicative of a trend that these professions may not require a high degree EQ. In other words, a moderate level of EQ appears to be sufficient to be successful in these professions. Bureaucrats, for instance, face conflict, stress and burnout from internal and external factors and may be able to deal with them effectively with moderate EQ. The judiciary, information technology needs a dedicated and individu­alistic approach at the workplace. The judge, software engineer, computer programmer or computer engineer has to concentrate on program­mes that require minimal interaction with people. Hence, it is not surprising that moderate EQ would suffice in these professions. The scien­tists, engineers and IT professionals may prove to be effective in their professions even with a moderate amount of EQ. Similarly, in medicine, banking, engineering and accountancy professions, the job is entirely impersonal, involving monetary transactions and financial matters that usually have little or no interaction with people. In financial institutions, rules and regulations are well defined and cannot be changed or modified. Hence, an moderate EQ is fine in these professions.

Q: So Professor where do we stand now? Please dispel the confusion? Do we conclude High EQ is good and LOW EQ is bad?

 

        NK Chadha: Emotions are neither good nor bad. There are thresholds of each emotion and you have to learn to be emotionally intelligent to be successful. I may conclude by saying that different professions do require different levels of EQ. However, having a high or average EQ cannot simplistically be labeled as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in a profession. It is necessary to have the right balance of various emotional competencies that can help one become a star performer. Although many professions exhibited moderate EQ, it should not be interpreted that high EQ is not required in these professions.

 

Q: How does one come to know about the level of his-her EQ. Is there any EQ test developed for it?

        NK Chadha: Are you emotionally intelligent? To find out you can test your EQ online. Visit www.eqindia.com and attempt FREE ONLINE EQ TEST developed by me and Dr Dalip Singh IAS. The test will help you know more about yourself and about people around you. The test measures the way you use your emotional skills in your personal and professional life. This EQ test has a test-retest and split-half reliability of 0.94 and 0.89 respectively and validity of 0.89. Developed in 2001, this test has been attempted by more than 150,000 people worldwide and being used extensively for research. You can also visit THE INDIA CIVIL SERVANT on YOUTUBE and get more information.

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