Emotional Intelligence and Your EPPP Score

Emotional intelligence (EQ) could predict a successful EPPP score.

EQ is the measure of a person’s capability to identify and manage his or her emotions as well as the emotions of others. Dr. Travis Bradberry, co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, spoke at the 2016 Global Leadership Summit explaining why EQ is important when it comes to success.

According to Bradberry, EQ be broken down into four parts:

1. Self awareness: Being aware of your tendencies
2. Self management: What you do with your self awareness
3. Social awareness: Recognizing and understanding the emotions and perspective of others
4. Relationship management: Being aware of yourself and the other person and being able to respond.

A high EQ would seemingly come in handy interpersonally, which it does, so how can it predict success? Bradberry explained that emotions are the primary driver of our behavior whether that be interpersonally or in how we work. To paint a picture of what that success looks like in the workforce; 90% of top performing workers are high in EQ while 20% of poor performers are low in EQ.

Author Chade-Meng Tan of Search Inside Yourself also makes a testament to the affect of emotional intelligence on success:

“The first thing emotional intelligence enables is stellar work performance. Studies have shown that emotional competencies are twice as important in contributing to excellence as pure talent and expertise.”

Tan also advocates that “Being strong in emotional intelligence can help everyone be outstanding at work, even engineers.” Therefore, emotional intelligence is not only helpful to those who work interpersonally everyday but can make anyone become an outstanding employee or, in your case, an outstanding EPPP student who gets a passing score. When it comes to your EPPP score, being emotionally intelligent is more of a determining success factor than your natural intelligence.

Unlike IQ, which remains steady from about age 15, EQ is flexible and can be increased by making positive behaviors habitual. Bradberry listed three steps to increase your EQ:

1. Control your stress
Be aware of what stresses you out and adjust accordingly. If you study at home and are constantly stressed from the distraction of roommates or a noisy neighbor, perhaps try studying elsewhere like a local coffee shop or city library.

2. Clean up your sleep hygiene
Sleep is directly correlated with focus and attention and can be improved by more than just getting more hours. To get the best sleep possible, avoiding blue light (i.e. computer and phone screens) at night, and by avoiding sleep aids.

3. Control your caffeine intake
A cup of coffee takes 24 hours to be completely out of your system. It is common to get into the habit of drinking caffeine throughout the day and then relying on it in the morning after a caffeinated, not-so-good night’s sleep. Breaking this cycle could take some willpower but could be worth it when you need to feel rested for another day of studying.

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