Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine

Emotional Intelligence

What is it?
How does it work for you?

Goals of This Module

This learning module has been designed to:

• Increase Your Knowledge and Understanding of Emotional Intelligence

• Help You to Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence Skills

• Provide Strategies to Allow Emotional Intelligence to Positively Impact Your Work

Emotional Intelligence

Definition:

"Emotional Intelligence, quite simply, is the ability to make healthy adaptive choices
based on our ability to identify, understand and manage our own emotions and the
emotions of others."

Mitchel  Adler, Psy. D

Support for EI Development

"Principles of Emotional Intelligence, reflective practice, and mindfulness can be applied
to enhance professionalism and overall physician performance."

Lucey and Souba –
 Journal of Academic Medicine, June 2010

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important

• Self-Knowledge and success in relationships are critical competencies

• EQ impacts & predictive of performance

• EQ impacts & predictive of performance

Our Emotions

If Emotional Intelligence is about emotions we need to consider the relevant human affective states.

The five basic emotions are:

• Mad
• Glad
• Sad
• Afraid
• Ashamed

All the rest tend to be combinations or variants of these....

Attention to our emotional state means becoming aware, and attending to these common emotional states.

Definition

Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional Intelligence, quite simply, is the ability to make healthy adaptive choices based on our ability to identify,
understand and manage our own emotions and the emotions of others.

IThe dimension of intelligence responsible for our ability to manage ourselves and our relationships with others

Emotional Intelligence explains why, despite equal intellectual capacity, training, competency, or experience, some
people excel in life while others with comparable knowledge or skills (or even superior intellectual capacity) fail or flounder.

The skills that are part of Emotional Intelligence are no longer considered "soft skills" but have been successfully measured
and quantified with more than 25 years of research to support these findings.

The skills related to Emotional Intelligence can be learned at any age or stage of human development.

Emotional Intelligence skills contribute to personal and professional success just as much as knowledge and competency.

Domains of Emotional Intelligence

There are four realms or domains of Emotional Intelligence:

Self Awareness
Self Management
Social Awareness
Relationship Management

Personal Competency

The Personal Competencies include Self-Awareness and Self-Management

Each domain has its own specified skills as listed below:

Self-Awareness

• Emotional Self Awareness
• Accurate Self Assessment
• Self-confidence

Self-Management

• Emotional Self-Control
• Transparency
• Adaptability
• Achievement
• Initiative
• Optimism

Self Awareness Strategies

• Quit Treating Your Feelings As Good or Bad
• Observe the Ripple Effect from Your Emotions
• Lean into Your Discomfort
• Feel Your Emotions Physically
• Know Who and What Pushes Your Buttons
• Watch Yourself Like a Hawk
• Keep a Journal About Your Emotions
• Don't be Fooled by a Bad Mood
• Don't be Fooled by a Good Mood, Either
• Stop and Ask Yourslef Why You do the things You Do
• Visit Your Values
• Check Yourself
• Spot Your Emotions In Books, Movies, and Music
• Seek Feedback
• Get to Know Yourslef under Stress

Self Management Strategies

• Breathe Right
• Create    Emotion vs Reason List
• Make your Goals Public
• Count to Ten
• Sleep on It
• Talk to a Skilled Self-Manager
• Smile and Laugh More
• Set Aside Time for Problem Solving
• Take Control of Your Self-Talk
• Visualize Your Succeeding
• Get Better Sleep
• Focus on Your Freedoms instead of Limitations
• Stay Synchronized
• Consult someone who is not Emotionally Invested in Your Problems
• Learn Something from Everyone You Encounter
• Schedule for Mental Recharge
• Accept that Change is just Around the Corner

Social Competence

The Social Competencies include Social-Awareness and Relationship Management

Social Awareness

• Empathy
• Organizational Awareness
• Service

Relationship Management

• Ability to inspire others
• Influence
• Develop/mentor others
• Change catalyst
• Conflict management
• Building Bonds or Bridges
• Teamwork or Collaboration

Social Awareness Strategies

• Greet People by Name
• Watch Body Language
• Make Timing Everything
• Develop a Back Pocket Question
• Don't Take Notes at Meetings
• Plan ahead for Social Gatherings
• Clear Away the Clutter
• Live in the Moment
• Go on a 15-minute Tour
• .Watch EQ at the Movies
• Go People Watching
• Understand the Rules of the Culture Game
• Test for Accuracy
• Step into Their Shoes
• Seek the Whole Picture
• Catch the Mood of the Room

Social Management Strategies

• Be Open and Curious
• Enhance your Natural Communication Style
• Avoid giving Mixed Signals
• Remember the Little Things that Pack a Punch
• Take Feedback Well
• Build Trust
• Have an Open-Door Policy
• Only Get Mad on Purpose
• Don't Avoid the Inevitable
• Acknowledge the Other Person's Feelings
• Complement the Other Person's Emotions or Situation
• When you Care Show It
• Explain Your Decisions Don't Just Make Them
• Make Your Feedback Direct and Constructive
• Align Your Intention with Your Impact
• Offer a Fix-It Statement during a Broken Conversation
• Tackle a Tough Conversation

Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Physician Performance

Professionalism
EI = achievement, service, impulse control, initiative, integrity, transparency, confidence, clinical competency

Interpersonal skills
EI = self-awareness, empathy, mentoring

Communication skills
EI = conflict management, building bonds, influence, self-awareness, transparency, optimism

Ability to Work as part of an Interdisciplinary Team
EI = adaptability, collaboration, organizational awareness, empathy, building bonds

Performance Myth

Myth:
Physician behavior will change when they see data that demonstrates their conduct impacts patient care and they are 'outliers' among their peers.

Fact:
Emotions, values and beliefs have a far greater influence over behavior than knowledge. Under stressful circumstances, human factors and conditioned responses usually trump knowledge and intellect

The Dilemma

This requires a paradigm shift because we cannot motivate the right behaviors from people who:

• Have little or low self-awareness
• Lack empathy for others
• Have ineffective communication skills
• Have poor impulse control

Solution

Cornerstones for Performance Improvement and Patient Safety:

• Self-Awareness
• Empathy for the Other
• Self-Control

Are Emotional Intelligence Skills a Panacea for Human Performance?

NO!

They do not supersede clinical competency.

BUT EI skills are the missing link that can help better translate competency to performance

Factors that Influence Behavior and Why Change is Difficult

• Behavior effects performance, but how we think and feel effects our behavior
• Changing behavior is difficult because often involves process of re-wiring
• Motivation for change frequently result of pain point, rather than reward
• Addressing performance problems through policies, guidelines, etc. usually ineffective
• Must address how the person feels to change how they act

Steps for Developing your EQ skills:

• Observe and challenge yourself - what is your think, feel, act response?
• Pause and Reflect - consider an alternative way to perceive, are you making assumptions?
  How are others responding?
• Interpret - engage your rational brain in problem-solving, consider options
• Choose: make decisions or repond with goals and intentiions
  

Use Emotional Intelligence Skills To…

• Know yourself
• Understand others
• Make better decisions
• See and seize opportunities
• Identify problems before they escalate
• Manage difficult situations and conversations

Communication and Team Functioning

• The cornerstone skills of EI - self-awareness, emapthy and self-control are fundamental to
  effective communication, optimal team functioning, and creating healthy work cultures.
• Emotional IntelligenceI skills are essential for leadership development, but mastering the basice 3 enhances
  performance and promotes patient safety!

Practical Suggestions

• Seeing the Value of EI skills - Connect EI to ACGME comptencies and positive clinical outcomes
• Make Time to Learn and Practice Skills- Commit to being a life-long learner of EI
• Culture of Medicine - Begin teaching EI in medical school and residency training
• Develop faculty champions of EI
• Assure Adequate Support - Help Organization see Value of EI

A Final Thought

" In the fields, I have studied, emotional intelligence is much more powerful than IQ in determining who emerges as a leader.
IQ is a threshold competence. You need it , but it doesn't make you a star. Emotional intelligence can"

Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader

Exploring Emotional Intelligence During an Interview

Sample Questions