The following article by John Rutkowski, Delegate from New Jersey, originally appeared in the Management Section bulletin. The editors agreed to share them with readers of The AARC Record, as we feel the topics and content are pertinent to all of us. For more information, contact John at jarutk@worldnet.att.net, or 732.828.3000, x2898.

The choice is yours. You have one vacancy that you must fill. Two candidates have been interviewed. Would you hire the respiratory therapist who was a whiz with any of the available ventilators and an excellent GPA but lacked "people skills"? Would you hire the respiratory therapist who was in the middle of the class (based on GPA) but was highly regarded as a team player, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills?

Daniel Goleman, author of the bestsellers "Emotional Intelligence" and "Working with Emotional Intelligence", and co-chairmen of the Consortium for research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations believes that top performers, in almost any field, have a higher level of emotional intelligence. As much as 80% of success in life is attributable to Emotional Intelligence (EI) and only 20% to IQ. Even if the proportions are not 80/20 the evidence that is being collected and presented clearly support the significance of EI as a factor that must be better understood and utilized organizationally. EI has applications in several areas including career development, management development and team effectiveness.

Most of us already recognize the importance of "people skills" but have been reluctant to base major decisions on those skills because of the ambiguity and "mushiness" of the term. Emotional Intelligence is firmly rooted in science. How many times have you shared your copy of "All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum? The things he learned in kindergarten were:

• Share everything,
• play fair,
• don't hit people,
• put things back were you found them,
• clean up your own mess,
• don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody,
• wash your hands before you eat,
• flush.
• Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the little plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup -- they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned -- the biggest word of all -- LOOK.

Everything you need to learn is in there somewhere. Truly, words to live by.

Goleman defines "Emotional Intelligence" as referring to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. (Goleman, 1998) In his books Goleman identifies five characteristics of emotional intelligence:

• Self-awareness -- a realistic assessment of our own abilities and a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
• Self-regulation -- handling our emotions so that they facilitate, not interfere with the task at hand. Being conscientious and delaying gratification to purse goals.
• Motivation -- using our deepest preferences to move and guide us toward our goals, to help us take initiative and strive to improve, and to persevere in the face of setbacks and frustrations.
• Empathy -- sensing what people are feeling, being able to take their perspective, and cultivating rapport and attunement with a broad diversity of people.
• Social skills -- Handling emotions in relationships well and accurately reading social situations in networks; interacting smoothly; using these skills to persuade and lead, negotiate and settle disputes, for cooperation and teamwork.

As managers, and as providers of bedside patient care, we know that constraints on resources (human and otherwise) are not going to suddenly disappear. You know the mantra, "we have to reduce expenses because ……". Development of the characteristics and the skills inventory of emotional intelligence may be the most important initiative that we can implement to increase the likelihood of success for ourselves, our staffs, our organizations and most importantly the people that we care for.

Fortunately, it appears that unlike IQ which reaches a point and can longer increase, emotional intelligence can be learned. Perhaps even more importantly, it seems to naturally improve with age.

References:

Fulghum, R. (1986). All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: NewYork Ballantine Books

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.

 

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