Mains Practice Questions

Approach

• Start your answer by giving a brief about Emotional intelligence.
• Discuss various components of Emotional intelligence.
• Discuss the importance of Emotional intelligence in Civil Services.
• Conclude suitably.

Introduction

Emotional intelligence refers to ‘the ability to identify one’s own emotions and those of others, harness and apply them to tasks, and to regulate and manage them’.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a measure of one’s EI i.e., through a standardized test, one’s awareness of emotions in relation to self and others is known.

Main Body

Components of EI (as given by Daniel Goleman)

• Self-Awareness: It is the skill of being aware of and understanding one’s emotions as they occur and as they evolve.
• Self-Regulation: It is about controlling one’s emotions i.e. instead of reacting quickly; one can reign in one’s emotions and thus will think before responding.
• Internal Motivation: It includes one’s personal drive to improve and achieve commitment to one’s goals, initiative, or readiness to act on opportunities, and optimism and resilience.
• Empathy: It is an awareness of the needs and feelings of others both individually and in groups, and being able to see things from the point of view of others.
• Social Skills: It is applying empathy and balancing the wants and requirements of others with one’s. It includes building good rapport with others.

Importance of EI in Civil Services

• For Targeting Policies better: Bureaucrats need to know emotions, moods and drives of persons at whom public policy is targeted for better acquaintance with the nature of problems in society and their possible solutions.
• For motivating subordinates: EI helps a person in comprehending emotions of others, thus an emotionally intelligent civil servant can motivate his/her subordinates towards a particular goal.
• Stress Management: EI enables one to manage emotions in anxiety-provoking situations and thus helps one in maintaining one’s physical and mental well being.
• For change: An Emotionally Intelligent person is more likely to try new things, take risks and face new challenges without fear. This will help in finding innovative solutions to different problems.
• For Decision making: EI helps in recognizing such emotions that are unrelated to any specific problem and not allowing them to be influential to the final result.
• For Better Communication: An Emotionally Intelligent civil servant will be able to communicate policies better. Also, the person will be able to foster a healthy relationship with subordinates.
• For maintaining balance in life: EI helps a civil servant in managing his/her personal life as well as professional life.
• On the personal front, EI makes one more flexible, empathetic and clear in expression.

Conclusion

Now-a-days, organizations take the initiative to improve Emotional Intelligence among its employees through different group activities, exercises, seminars and tests. However, EI also improves with age (maturity) due to one’s experiences in life.