A survey of 2600 human resources professionals found that 71% valued Emotional Intelligence (EI) more than IQ when hiring. EI is a necessary mind and skill set for 21st century life and a method for strengthening our resilience to stress.

1. Emotional Intelligence:
It’s Not What You Think
Increase stress-resilience through
emotional intelligence
www.lifestage.org

2. “The ability to recognize the
meanings of emotions and
their relationships and
problem-solve on the basis of
them.
Emotional Intelligence is
involved in the capacity to
perceive emotion, assimilate
emotion-related
feelings, understand the What is
information of those emotions
and manage them.” Emotional
Intelligence
Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2000). Models of emotional
intelligence. In R.J. Steinberg (Ed.), Handbook
of intelligence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
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3. “a multifactorial array of interrelated
emotional, personal and social abilities that
influence our overall ability to actively and
effectively cope with demands and
pressures.”
Bar-On, R., & Parker, J.D.A. (2000). The handbook of emotional intelligence. San Francisco: Josey
Bass.
An Interdisciplinary Model
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4. Interpersonal skills are as essential as medical knowledge
and technical skill in the operating room
 Medical errors – with resulting complications and
sometimes catastrophic outcomes for patients – were
found to be directly related to communication failures
among medical and surgical teams.
 Social, relational, and organizational factors - are
complex and relate to hierarchical differences, concerns
with upward influence, conflicting roles and role
ambiguity, and interpersonal power and conflict.
Michelle O‟Daniel & Alan Rosenstein, “Professional Communication and Team Collaboration” Patient Safety and
Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality April 2008.
Emotional Intelligence is essential
for dealing with the complexities
of the networked world

5. Role influences our perception of events.
A study exploring communication in the Operating Room
found a profound disconnect among members of the
same surgical team. Communication was perceived to
be:
poor by the anesthesiologists
adequate by the nurses
good by the surgeons
“Teamwork and Communication in Surgical Teams: Implications For Patient Safety” Peter Mills PhD
et al Journal of the American College of Surgeons Volume 206 Issue 1 2008 107-112
Complex systems are made up of
individuals at different hierarchical
levels who must constantly interrelate.

6. The Army Safety Center reported that crew coordination
failures – failures to communicate effectively, perceive
situations accurately and effectively distribute the workload
- directly contributed to the loss of hundreds of lives and
$292 million in aviation accident costs.
Implementation of Crew Resource Management training
resulted in significant improvement in aircrew‟s overall
mission effectiveness:
 Overall mission effectiveness +20%
 Navigation accuracy +38%
 Mission objectives +44%
Gary Grubb et al, “Sustaining and Enhancing Performance Improvements Achieved by Crew Resource
Management Training” Dynamics Research Corporation
Crew Resource Management
(CRM): Emotional Intelligence
in the Cockpit

7.  CRM is Applied  Communication – listening, speaking
directly and respectfully to others, making
Emotional intentions and perceptions clear, receiving
feedback;
Intelligence –  Situational awareness – attentiveness to
used to train
the present moment, dynamic
attention, observation and perception of
emergency 
many things at once;
Decision-making – the ability to choose a
medical course of action based on the immediate
facts and realistic options;
personnel, cockpit  Teamwork – recognizing the role of each
crews, firefighters
team members, openness of
communication among team members;
and other high-  Barriers – recognizing factors that inhibit
any of the above
stress, high-stakes factors, e.g., prejudices, interpersonal
conflict, blind spots
professions Crew Resource Management, International
Association of Fire Chiefs
High-stress and high stakes
require calm, communication and
cooperation

8. Emotional Intelligence is composed of the
following discrete abilities:
 perception and expression of emotion;
 integrating emotion with thought;
 understanding and analyzing emotion;
 reflective regulation of emotion.
Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R.J. Steinberg (Ed.), Handbook
of intelligence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Morland,
Emotional intelligence corresponds to information
processing capabilities of different areas of the
brain

9. The ability – or intelligence - to „read‟ and manage emotions
in the self and others is a moderator in the process of dealing
with the stress response, which limits or shuts down higher
cognitive functions.
“In essence, emotional intelligence is considered to account
for individual differences in the capacity to process
information of an emotional nature and to be able to relate
these to wider cognitions. As such, EI is not about emotions
per se but more about the way in which individuals
effectively integrate emotions with thoughts and behaviour
and so can act to reduce aversive emotional experiences.”
Slaski, M & Cartwright, S “Emotional intelligence training and its implications for stress, health, and performance” Stress
and Health 19: 233–239 (2003)
Emotional Intelligence and stress

10. The Amygdala:
the brain/body’s alarm system

11.  The amygdala triggers the release of
cortisol, which redirects energy from the
intellect to the senses.
When cortisol levels are high:
 Working memory is reduced
 Distractibility is increased
 Information processing is reduced
 Emotional reactivity is heightened
Psychological threats trigger the
amygdala in the same way as
actual physical danger

12. The amygdala triggers the biochemicals needed to respond
to a single threat. However, once secreted these chemicals
stay in the body for hours, and each successive surge adds
more to the levels already there.
A high level of stress hormones can have a cyclical
effect- keeping the amygdala in high-alert mode and
leading to emotional over-reactiveness to even minor
threats and the ongoing sense of being threatened.

13. The pre-frontal cortex links to the amygdala through
the limbic system
Emotions are processed through
the limbic system

14. Emotional Intelligence
as burn-out prevention
EI is associated with the ability to regulate and control the
expression of emotions and validate one‟s own thoughts and
feelings.
Self-regulation increases resilience to the stress response that could
otherwise be triggered by the onset of a serious problem.
EI is the use of brain and mind to engage with the tensions of a
complex situation rather than react to them.
Mark Slaski and Susan Cartwright, “Emotional intelligence training and its implications for stress, health and
performance” Stress and Health Volume 19 2003
Self-awareness is key to
regulating the stress response

15. “Through increased self-
awareness, individuals are more
able to detach themselves from
events and regulate their
emotions in order to prevent them
from becoming „immersed in‟ and
„carried away‟ by emotional
reactiveness.”
Mark Slaski and Susan Cartwright, “Emotional intelligence training
and its implications for stress, health and performance” Stress and
Health Volume 19 2003

16. Avoiding burn-out isn‟t about getting three
square meals or eight hours of sleep. It‟s not
even necessarily about getting time at home.
I have a theory that burnout is about
resentment. And you beat it by knowing what
it is you‟re giving up that makes you
resentful. I tell people: find your rhythm. Your
rhythm is what matters to you so much that
when you miss it you‟re resentful of your
work.
Marissa Mayer, Vice President of local, maps and location services at
Google
Business Week, April 13, 2012
Find Your Rhythm

17. “You can‟t have everything you
want, but you can have the
things that really matter to you.
And thinking that way
empowers you to work really
hard for a really long period of
time.”
Marissa Mayer, Vice President of local, maps and location services at Google
Business Week April 13, 2012
Find your rhythm and protect it.

18. Emotional intelligence grows through increasing
connections between emotions and higher cognitive
functions

19. How to develop the core skills of EI

Write in a journal about emotions at the beginning and at
the end of the day – be alert to patterns and specific “hot
button” issues that show up repeatedly;
 Ask for feedback and listen without judgment – others‟
perceptions are not without bias but they can be useful in
our dealings with them;
 Identify underlying motivations that either promote or
inhibit effective interactions with others, e.g. “I need to be
right” or “Disagreement equals insubordination (or
disapproval) so I need to change your mind”
 Physical activity that enhances bodily awareness, e.g. yoga
or yogic breathing helps bring emotions into focus;
EI can be developed and expand over a
person’s entire life

20. “There are more neurons in the brain than
there are stars in the galaxy, and we form
more than 1 million new connections
among these neurons each day.”
Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council
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21. “There is a vitality, a life force, an
energy, a quickening that is translated
through you into action, and because there
is only one of you in all of time this
expression is unique.
You have to keep yourself open and
aware to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open.”
Martha Graham
Know what matters to you

22.  Bar-On, R., & Parker, J.D.A. The handbook of emotional intelligence. (2000).
San Francisco: Josey Bass
 “Conflict in the health care workplace” Baylor University Medical Center
Proceedings, April 2001
 Crew Resource Management, International Association of Fire Chiefs
http://www.iafc.org/files/pubs_CRMmanual.pdf
 Goldman, Daniel; Boyatzis, Richard; McKee, Annie (2004) Primal Leadership:
Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Press.
 Goleman, Daniel (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books.
 Goleman, Daniel (1995). Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books.
 Mark Slaski and Susan Cartwright, “Emotional intelligence training and its implications for
stress, health and performance” Stress and Health Volume 19 2003
 Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. Models of emotional intelligence. In R.J. Steinberg
(Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (2000) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
 Michelle O’Daniel & Alan Rosenstein, “Professional Communication and Team
Collaboration” Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for
Nurses, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality April 2008.
Resources and References

23.  Online tests available at:
http://www.talentsmart.com/products/
 http://ei.mhs.com/EISA.aspx
Assess Your Emotional
Intelligence

24. Lifestage, Inc designs and facilitates training
seminars, classes, and workshops for
professional and personal development.
Workshops and classes are customized to meet
an organization's needs. Contact us for a free
consultation.
www.lifestage.org Call: 631-366-4265
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“Imagination is more important
than knowledge.” Albert Einstein