Emotional Quotient or EQ is a new construct, a recent term. It is used to describe the capability of a person to handle tough situations that can rattle him emotionally. This term has been used extensively for the last two decades in the professional world.
This article takes an objective look at the parameter called emotional quotient, which has been created in the modern world driven by science and technology with systems based on empiricism. Data from the field and experiential information form the basis of most of the working systems in vogue today across various disciplines of life. But we must not forget that civilised humans have been living for a long time on the earth and we have to learn a lot from our tradition, folklore and preserved scriptural texts.
The above is based on the logical premise that, as stated above, our ancestors were men of wisdom, driven by logic, science and actual experience of generations. Hence, they used both the eternal scientific principles and empirical, experiential data in their professional practice. That is why ancient Indian texts like Manusmriti, Bhagwadgita, and Aitreya Brahman, etc., are invaluable sources of knowledge—both preceptual and experiential.
The deeper meaning of EQ
In this article, the term emotional quotient will be defined and treated based on the time-tested philosophy of ancient Indian scriptures. The aforesaid discussion provides us with the comfort that this philosophy takes into account the eternal scientific principles concerning the human mind and the experience of generations on the same subject.
Human life is complex, and the human being is frail. Today’s civilised world, driven by technology and professional systems, has made life all the more complex and stress ridden. Insecurity and uncertainty are the hallmarks of today’s professional life. The professional world is specialised and systems-centred, with modern technology strongly impinging on it. Technology and systems derived from it are not fixed but are gradually changing.
In today’s corporate world, there is a constant, growing focus on efficiency improvement and optimisation of resources. The business world is fiercely competitive, and survival of the fittest holds the key to success. Under these circumstances, it is but natural that coping with mental stress will be a constant challenge for working professionals.
In the professional workplace, the role of emotional quotient assumes great significance in view of the foregoing. Let us analyse the various factors that go into what is called the emotional quotient.
As defined above, emotional quotient is the capability of a person to cope with stressful situations. Actually, stress is the outcome of a person’s reaction to an external situation. It would be worthwhile to delve deep into the determinants of this stress. We all know that the human being is an emotional being. Let us treat this subject in a fundamental way, talking in terms of the basic, eternal constitution of a human being. A human being is the organised assemblage of the physical body, five physical senses, five subtle senses, mind, intellect, ego self and the soul. The mind controls the senses through which all work is performed. The intellect holds and directs the mind for all actions, responses and reactions. But ultimately, it is the soul or self that charges and commands the intellect for all these tasks.
In the above context, the most important entity is the human mind, which is the commander of the physical senses and is really the fulcrum of all human actions. The mind is an erratic, fickle and wandering type of thing and is so powerful that it sways your intellect in a surge of emotions. Anger, passion, greed, attachment and pride are the five cardinal emotions that afflict the mind from time to time and influence human behaviour accordingly. Emotional quotient is the human quality to overcome these five cardinal emotions that afflict the human being.
As stated above, Emotional quotient is really the extent to which the human individual can exercise control or check over the above emotions of anger, passion, greed, attachment and pride. These emotions, if kept in check, make a man behave rationally and objectively and maximise his output and efficiency at the workplace.
What do these emotions do?
If emotional states as described above grow beyond limits, they are detrimental to internal peace and composure of the person. In that case, they undermine the quality of his relationship with others—his peers, subordinates or superiors at the workplace. Consequently, they undermine his performance and even others’ performance at work.
Anger is the worst enemy of peace and workplace efficiency. It spoils and snaps human relationships within seconds. In a professional workplace, it is very important to control anger. There can be many situations that can provoke employee’s anger. Impolite behaviour, disobedience, target and work timeline pressures, job dissatisfaction — these can be the triggers for irritation, anger and angry behaviour. Such behaviour obviously vitiates the workplace atmosphere, hitting badly the work efficiency and output.
Passion is the next element of EQ. Passion works both ways widely. Positive passion is a huge catalyst for an employee’s high performance and professional growth. We are witnesses to passionate people delivering great output and rising fast along the executive rung of the business organisation. Passion is the seed of innovation. It creates out-of-the-box thinkers to beat the competition.
Passion, when carrying negative intentions, obviously works to the organisation’s detriment. We can cite here the example of an employee indulging in an action or behaviour to discredit his peer to wrest personal advantage. The action or behaviour can be in the form of backbiting, smear or rumour mongering.
We now take the third element of emotional quotient. That is greed. Greed blurs the sense of rationality of the person and drives him or her into committing professional misconduct, sometimes grave misconduct, which can be put under the category of criminal acts. There are umpteen examples of persons committing financial irregularities—from taking bribes to fudging accounts to passing on vital confidential information to competitors for pecuniary gains. Greed is an outright negative emotion. Even with positive intentions underlying it, it makes an employee overwork or overstretch his limits for the purpose of gaining extra credits, but it can damage his physical health and create a grave work-home life imbalance.
The fourth element of emotional quotient is attachment. Attachment is a state of the mind wherein a person feels an overwhelming sense of belongingness to anything. At the workplace, an employee is a hireling. He renders services and gets paid for them. But in any role, the power and position associated with that role tend to create that feeling of attachment. The employee thinks, though subconsciously, that the position is his, and the power or authority linked with that position goes to his head.
Attachment also manifests itself when an employee who has been working for a long period with an organisation begins to feel that he is indispensable or an inseparable part of the organisation. This, too, creates the false sense of attachment. A third type of attachment at the workplace stems from informal relationships with peers, juniors or seniors.
Relationship should remain strictly formal, official and professional. But sometimes, they go beyond the formal due to long associations, caste or communal commonality or even romantic involvement between employees of the opposite sex. All these situations have a marked impact on job performance in the workplace.
We now come to the last element of emotional quotient, and that is pride. Some folks are very successful in an organisation and get a quick raise in remuneration and promotion. Often their success goes to their head, and they become supercilious. There are employees who are more qualified than their peers, and they wear an air of superiority. There may be others who are proud of their looks. All these factors create the feeling of false superiority, and that does damage to the type of formal and flexible interpersonal relations that are required for the smooth functioning of the organisation.
Mind control—techniques from the texts of the yore
The ability to control anger is the foremost constituent of emotional quotient EQ. This is not to say that anger always has a negative impact on work performance. In situations of gross irregularity or indiscipline, it can be used effectively as an agent of correction. That is why the ability to control anger and use it prudently is an important facet of an executive’s work.
Passion has to be controlled to maintain workplace behaviour conforming to the organisation’s disciplinary code. Since it is a double-edged sword, the prescribed disciplinary code of the organisation should be such that it would impose punitive deterrence on the member if he, while pursuing his passion in his work performance, violates this code. The same code has to be designed to deter financial bungling or irregularities by employees at work. Often, punishment for economic malfeasance is heavy and rightly so. On the part of the employee, controlling both runaway passion and greed serves to keep him aligned with the organisational disciplinary code and promotes his stability and progress in the organisation.
From the above discussion, we see that the five cardinal elements that vitiate the mind depress or reduce the EQ, and this plays its negative role in the working of a professional organisation. It would be pertinent to state the background or source of these elements of EQ. Modern psychologists or behavioural scientists know precious little about the entity called the human mind. The constitution of the mind and the science behind its functioning remain shrouded in mystery.
What factors—external or internal affect the working of the mind are known from human experience, but to understand these things more deeply, we need to open the pages of our ancient Indian texts. The Bhagwat Gita, a scriptural text recording the dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjun at the battlefield of the Mahabharata about 5200 years ago, tells some very important facts about the human mind. This same text talks of the five cardinal elements that vitiate the mind as described above in this article. Vedic texts are the original source of this philosophy.
The parameter called EQ is not as easy to measure as the parameter called IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Psychologists have, over the years, devised structured tests to measure IQ. These tests measure the quantitative ability, logical reasoning ability and verbal ability of the person to arrive at his IQ. But similar types of tests will not measure the EQ with the same level of accuracy. There can be gaps in the objective evaluation of the self, and there can be a loss of objectivity in translating the test scores into what we have defined as EQ. But there is no doubt that given the importance of the human mind in the functional behaviour of a human being, mind control and mind regulation hold the key to their work performance both in quantitative and qualitative terms.
With a greater understanding of the human mind, psychologists can prepare better tests for the measurement of EQ. There is no doubt that the knowledge base of our ancient scriptural texts in regard to the constitution, structure and characteristics of the mind will be of immense value in this regard. But of greater importance than measuring the EQ is how EQ can be improved. The mind training techniques in vogue today are woefully inadequate, as they are based on an incomplete understanding of the human mind by modern psychologists. We may have to take a holistic look at this subject, taking into account the spiritual dimension of this and for that again, we have to use the rich knowledge base left by our learned ancestors of yore.
EQ has assumed an important place in modern management practice and rightly so. Fundamentally, it is the human being who is the common denominator of professional organisations, communities and their systems. It will remain so even in the future world of robotics and artificial intelligence because human beings will continue to drive all things. And the human is driven by the faculty called the mind in their work. So, integrating the wisdom of our ancients regarding this faculty and our present perspective on it using the concept of EQ, we can make a better way forward in optimising efficiency and productivity at the workplace.
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