Emotional Intelligence
understand yourself before trying to understand others
Definition
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a collection of traits that help people gauge social and emotional situations, and the interactions they have with others. It's a set of skills that becomes increasingly critical the more complex a context becomes — and few contexts are more complex than leadership.
The theory
Our understanding of EI has been shaped by decades of research, from Thorndike's early work on social intelligence, through Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, to Petrides' more recent trait-based model. Each built on the last to give us a fuller picture of what it means to be "smart" about emotions — our own and other people's.
Our approach
There are two broad ways to measure Emotional Intelligence. Ability-based testing treats EI as directly measurable, with a right or wrong, good or bad result. We take a different view.
We favour the trait-based assessment developed by K V Petrides (2001). There's no right or wrong, good or bad — instead, EI traits are something you can turn up or down, like a volume control, depending on the situation you're in. It isn't about chasing a "high" score; it's about being able to use the right traits, to the right degree, when it matters.
How it works
Once you've completed the trait-based EI self-assessment, we arrange a one-to-one feedback session — face-to-face or virtual, whichever suits you — which takes up to two hours. This is your chance to talk through your results and get answers to any questions you have.
After your feedback session, you'll receive your full report. It gives you an overall picture of your Emotional Intelligence based on traits, then goes deeper with charts breaking down each area in more detail.
