Posted: Aug 10, 07 10:25pm

Welcome to the EQ group!

Let's start off with some definitions of what emotional intelligence is.

First, EQ = EI. Same thing. Either is fine.

Let's kick it off with a definition by Daniel Goleman (more on him later), Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. In Primal Leadership, they write that emotional intelligence is "being intelligent about emotions."

I love that definition! Short, concise. I feel it's easy to "get it." Oh, I need to be smart about how I feel.

Here is another one, from Goleman: "The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships."

And one by Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey: "EI is the ability to perceive emotions, to assess and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so to promote emotional and intellectual growth."

Emotional intelligence is recognizing and managing your emotions in your relationships with others and yourself.

It's being smart about how you allow your emotions to end up into words.

Questions, comments about these definitions? Please post!