According to the Association for Talent Development, it was not long ago that emotional intelligence (EQ or EI) was a skill that companies deemed a “nice to have.” While EQ was often considered a value-add, today, these skills have quickly become a “must-have” in the workplace.
One survey found that most hiring managers (71 percent) stated they valued EQ in an employee over IQ, and (59 percent) claim that they would pass up a candidate with a high IQ but low EQ. Unfortunately, according to many employers, college students are still falling short when it comes to EQ, posing a barrier to professional success. So how can emotional intelligence help college students become career-ready? Below, we answer this question and offer key ways students can boost these crucial social and emotional skills to succeed in their personal, academic, and professional lives.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
The term emotional intelligence was created by two researchers, Peter Salovey and John Mayer, in 1990. It was later brought into popularity by Dan Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence (1996). According to the Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP), an EI training company, emotional intelligence is the ability to:
- Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions and;
- Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.
The IHHP suggests that managing emotions is essential when we are under pressure, such as meeting tight deadlines, navigating change, and working through setbacks and failures. The five standard components of emotional intelligence are:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Social awareness (relationship skills, empathy)
- Social regulation
- Internal Motivation
While Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills are taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, many students tend to push these skills aside once they enter college. However, the good news is that EQ, as known in the workplace, and SEL, known in academia, are essentially the same. According to Dartmouth, research strongly supports the relationship between emotional intelligence and wellness – both physical and emotional – and the college years are an essential time for strengthening these skills.
Why EQ is Essential: What College Students Need to Know
Andrea Samadi, host of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, recently spoke with Mark Herschberg, author of The Career Toolkit Book, to discuss EI, college students, and address why these skills are necessary for anyone entering the workforce. Samadi mentions during her podcast that recent surveys point out that 58 percent of employers say college graduates are not adequately prepared for today’s workforce. The employers noted a particular gap in social and emotional skills, and nearly 3 in 4 employers say they have difficulty finding graduates with the soft skills their companies need.
Herschberg reveals why he feels these skills are necessary and tells Samadi, “I knew I wanted to be a CTO in engineering, but I realized that skills like communication, team-building, and other leadership skills weren’t a part of the curriculum.” So he decided to help fix this issue and worked with MIT’s Career office to help create the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, MIT’s “Career Success Accelerator,” where he’s taught these workplace skills for twenty years. Herschberg also noticed this gap working at MIT and decided to write The Career Toolkit Book to teach these skills to students, managers, and anyone in the workforce.
So how essential is EQ in today’s workforce? According to an article in Business News Daily, emotional intelligence is crucial regardless of what industry a person enters. By honing their EI skills, an employee will gain an edge over others by successfully working with difficult people and resolving complex problems. The article cites a study supporting this view that found emotional intelligence is linked to higher career salaries and increased job satisfaction. The IHHP suggests that EI is necessary for the workplace as knowing and managing emotions (and the emotions of others) helps individuals to be more successful in both their personal and professional lives. At work, emotional intelligence also helps:
- Resolve conflicts.
- Build a culture of collaboration.
- Create psychological safety within teams.
How EI Helps College Students Become Career Ready
suggests that EI beautifully supports one of its primary objectives: Developing students into hirable employees and successful professionals. Research reveals higher levels of EI are related to better workplace engagement, performance, decision making, stress resilience, and conflict management. According to Dartmouth, beyond the college years, higher EI is also associated with effective performance in groups and strong leadership skills. In contrast, lower EI is related to unhealthy relationships, chronic stress, and emotional and intellectual burnout.
So how can students develop these necessary skills? Many colleges and universities offer classes in emotional intelligence, especially in business and leadership development. However, universities like Dartmouth take a holistic approach and offer EI workshops in their Student Wellness Center. Their program began working with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to develop and test an EI skill-building curriculum for college students, building on the RULER framework, which stands for:
- Recognizing
- Understanding
- Labeling
- Expressing
- Regulating emotions
This curriculum is an evidence-based approach for strengthening the skills of emotional intelligence. These discussion-based sessions are designed to build capacities for self-awareness, emotion regulation, and communication.
Other ways college students can evaluate and develop their EQ is through assessments, tests, and surveys. Many surveys or quizzes, like the one from Mindtools, act as a quick snapshot into how emotionally intelligent a person is and how they can improve these skills. For a more in-depth, scientific look into EQ and other skills, research-based assessments like the SELC (Social-Emotional Learning Competence) Report help students build a stronger foundation for social and emotional learning. It explains the underlying cause of a student’s behavior and offers individualized feedback to help them develop their strengths and overcome limitations. Talent Smart EQ also helps measure emotional intelligence and leadership skills and provides coaching services to help improve areas that pose a challenge, such as self-management. Whatever EQ survey, assessment, or test a student chooses, it is important to consider whether the tool is valid and reliable. It is also vital that it contains information that produces actionable, inciteful, and beneficial results.
