Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Why we need EQ from boardrooms to classrooms

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There was a time when intelligence meant high grades and technical knowledge. Today intelligence is yet another subject that is going through transformation at various levels. A medical doctor in my grandfather’s days could treat almost all health conditions. But today a medical practitioner prefers to refer the patients to the specialists concerned. Similarly, the concept of intelligence is beginning to have sub sections and even different streams. Measuring of IQ could determine the success of a person in the past, but it is only now that we know how much more valuable is EQ. Emotional intelligence is something some people excel in while others are left clue less. May be it is still considered as just a trend till now but the reality states otherwise.


Successful people are also better people’s person. Successful organisations also tend to have a strong human resources in place where they realise the employees can deserve more than just a salary. Where there is more support, people want to stay longer. So what is emotional intelligence?


According to experts, the five signs of high intelligence are self-awareness, motivation, empathy, social skills and self-regulation.


While motivation can be inspired, self-awareness can be taught, self-regulation and social skills can be trained, empathy is something that can be inborn trait but if missing it can be explained and developed.


Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. When young there was a philosophical statement that had an impact on me — before we judge someone and react by taking action take a moment to reflect on the situation if you were in that person’s shoes.


Usually the ones who are efficient would say, “If I were in that person’s place I would not do something so stupid.”


Here is the tricky part — when one person is highly efficient it is often difficult to forgive someone less efficient. But let us not be too quick to conclude. There is yet another statement that has stuck with me since childhood.


Rukmini Devi Arundale, founder of Kalakshetra in India, explained to all the students gathered for the morning assembly, “When you point a finger at someone remember three of them are pointing at you.”


A great lesson if one wants to follow — while we have come up with a fault to point on the other person, if we were to reflect on ourselves there might be at least three other faults in ourselves. This was just a reminder for us children to think about and be self-aware at the same time to realise that blaming others is a sign of weakness. Coming to think of it, finding fault in others is such a waste of time, but we continue to do so. Instead, we could continue to develop our self finding the flaws in ourselves and move them out and bring in traits of strength.


Younger children are even more vulnerable when people they look up to such as parents, grandparents and teachers are judgmental. This might be where we need to practice emotional intelligence just like the boardrooms, because with each mind we are shaping a future citizen of the world.


A kind word of motivation has worked miracles than a spout of yelling and throwing books leave alone caning. The latter can only generate anger, fear, loneliness, sadness and low self-esteem, which all means you have cut the bud even before it had the opportunity to see its own colours and the beauty it were to add to the world.


Whether a child or an adult let us give every individual a chance to prove themselves, learn from mistakes before they are terrorised to even think about starting again.


The success in not about just making it happen, but most importantly how many times a person fellow down and to know what made them not to give up. Most important factor is to understand that we are to continuously flow — flow until we reach the ocean. And then what happens? We merge whether we originated through a flashflood or river. In other words, when we understand the oneness emotional intelligence is at its best!


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