Running head: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 1

Introduction

The assignment is majorly a discussion on emotional intelligence based on three

scenarios that involves Susan a manager of a given organization or group who was satisfied with

her values such humor and teamwork even though she needs to add some values as discussed

below. The second is Harold a holder of MBA from Harvard University who used to work

towards his promotion instead of taking into account the company’s benefits and lastly is the

scenario of Carl.

Question One

No, this would not be a proper use of Susan’s assessment. Susan should make many

changes in the way she does her assessments. The changes that Susan would need to make is to

consider other ways of assessments while assessing her staffs; this is because of the twenty-four

classifications of Values in Action Inventory of Strengths which she can make good use of as

well (Kaufman et al., 2012). These Values in Action Inventory of Strengths were formed to

operate on Character Strengths and Virtues, which classifies positive strengths of a person and

also helps a person to realize and build their strengths. These values that include knowledge and

wisdom, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence, courage and other positive values when

considered can help Susan in assessment.

As a manager of an association, I believe that of all these values, Susan should give the

value of courage an upper hand as compared to other values. I consider the value of courage for a

proper assessment because courage is seen as an emotional asset (Kaufman et al., 2012). With

courage, Susan would be able to make bold decisions decisively as well as inclusively, show
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2

humility and confidence to her staff and interpret problems or situations with emotional and

rational intelligence. All these are characters that are expectations of other employees from their

manager, and therefore with courage, the other workers will respect Susan as their leader.

Aristotle, from most of his articles, referred to courage as the first virtue. It is because

when one uses this virtue in life, she will be able to attain other virtues too (Tearle, 2014). In

addition to its importance in human’s life, the virtue is also essential when it comes to

management of business. Since courage is a learnable and teachable skill, everyone can be

courageous. I, therefore, feel that Susan should not only consider her biggest strengths, which are

teamwork and humor, but she should also find the courage she displays to her staff. With

courage, just as stated by Aristotle, Susan will be able to achieve other virtues as well.

Question two

Emotional intelligence is the ability to choose, understand, manage and use your personal

emotions positively in order to get rid of stress, communicate effectively, overcome challenges,

reduce conflicts as well as empathize with other people (Sterrett, 2000). With this ability, one

can recognize as well as understand what other people do experience emotionally. Capacity to

identify and understand do not need, in most cases, verbal communication since it only requires

critical thinking that gives one the ability to read someone’s mind and actions (Tearle, 2014). It,

therefore, informs thinking as well as influencing your connection with other persons in the

organization and clients too.

Though emotional intelligence is categorized into five categories that include; self-

awareness, motivation, social skills, empathy and self-regulation, based on someone’s character,

considering different elements of emotional intelligence discussed in the background readings, I

would categorize this emotional ability as self-awareness (Sterrett, 2000). I categorize it this way
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 3

because, from the context, Harold has been striving hard to work towards his job promotion

within the organization. Despite the bad quality of Harold in that he works exceptionally hard as

he trusted his emotions, Harold was very comfortable with this.

From the context, Harold lacked the value of self-regulation. I consider this value

because Harold can control his feelings, which makes other workers under him to view it as if

Harold was not able to make decisions that better the company but rather would make decisions

that benefit him (Sterrett, 2000). From this context, we can learn that emotional intelligence is

different from our thoughts on intellectual ability, this is because emotional intelligence is never

acquired, but it is attained through learning. This education does take place at any moment in our

lives, in this case, emotional and social skills set, emotional intelligence, is something we are all

able to attain in life. It is, therefore, important to know that there is a great difference between

the having the knowledge of emotional intelligence and applying this knowledge to your daily

life experience.

Question Three

Considering different elements of emotional intelligence as discussed in the background

readings, I would categorize car’s emotional intelligence under motivational EQ (Sterrett, 2000).

From the context; Carl is a person who is motivated and overwhelmed by the positive results

from his organization. It is noted in the context that Carl gets upset when his company’s profits

for one section within his business depreciates as compared to the benefits attained in some past

few months. The quality that I feel that lacks in Carl is self-regulation. I regard this value since it

is clearly noted in the context that Carl needs to take sick off to recover from what had upset him

in order get back to his right mind (Kaufman et al., 2012). I propose that one should not seclude
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 4

himself from his employees when he gets lose or when profit depreciates but rather discuss with

his employees on the cause of this depreciation to improve on sectors that were not well done.

Conclusion

As noted from the discussion Susan being a manager and feels satisfied with her qualities

that is humor and teamwork, even though as noted she had to be courage also to help her achieve

other values. Harold on the other hand, need to incorporate the value of self-regulation and Carl

too had to incorporate self-regulation to help him a great deal in solving the problems

encountered by the company.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 5

Reference

Kaufman, C., Silberman, J., & Sharpley, D. (2012). Chapter 17: Coaching for strengths using

VIA. In Passmore, J. (Ed.). Psychometrics in Coaching: Using Psychological and

Psychometric Tools for Development (2nd Edition). London, GBR: Kogan Page Ltd.

[eBook Business Collection.

Seligman, M. (2009). Dr. Martin Seligman’s top strengths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=YC1HZqCbZ70:

Sterrett, E. A. (2000). Chapter 1: Defining Emotional Intelligence. Manager's Pocket Guide to

Emotional Intelligence: From Management to Leadership. Amherst, MA, USA: HRD

Press.

Sterrett, E. A. (2000). Chapter 3: Assessing Emotional Intelligence. Manager's Pocket Guide to

Emotional Intelligence: From Management to Leadership. Amherst, MA, USA: HRD

Press.

Tearle, R. (2014) Emotional Intelligence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepJp7KpaH4,

Intelligent Executive, Maidenhead, UK: