Emotional Intelligence

Chapter 3How do we measure EI?

Measuring any type of human behaviour, reaction, personality, characteristic or emotion is always a challenge. Although all human minds have the same structure and functionality, the content, triggers and usage are completely different. Each and every one of us is completely unique so the process can never be 100 per cent accurate.

There are many free EI assessments that can be found simply by searching the internet. There are also personality tests and quizzes that complement the EI assessments to paint a more inclusive picture of our personality.

All these assessments involve a number of questions that the applicant answers, resulting in them being placed into a defined category that measures their EI or personality. The assessments are fun and seem scarily accurate at times. The categories are the creator's definition of EI or types of personality.

However, this can result in the person sitting the assessment lacking ownership of their results. We might find ourselves justifying why we are different and therefore why a result doesn't apply to us: ‘I can't increase my score in empathy because that's just not who I am.’ Or we get our scores and accept that is who we are rather than ascertaining how to grow and become what we are truly capable of.

I much prefer to reverse the process of defining how an emotionally intelligent person behaves and having us assess ourselves based on our own definitions, capability and realistic delivery.

So, what ...