The term Emotional Competence is treated as a buzzword in the present scenario and several studies, as well as investigations, have been undertaken to explain the relevance of Emotional Competence in determining both individual employee and organizational success.

Emotional Competence plays a crucial role in improving the quality of our life and individuals with high emotional competence enhance their personal, professional as well as relational performances.

As per Daniel Goleman, an Academic Psychologist in his book “Working with Emotional Intelligence”, Emotional Competence influences the performance of employees at work which is largely a learned ability which is based on the emotional intelligence.

Emotionally intelligent individuals have a greater potential for learning and demonstrating the practical aspects of emotional competencies for enhancing their quality of life, overall satisfaction, and happiness. In the present scenario, job success largely depends on the emotional competence of employees than on technical competencies and IQ.

Emotional Competence is twice as important as is IQ and technical competencies combined. Emotional Competence can further be subdivided into Personal and Social Competence.

Personal Competencies are those which determine how effectively we manage ourselves. On the other hand, Social Competencies focus more on how effectively we can manage relationships.

Personal Competence

Self-Awareness: Understanding of one’s own internal strengths, intuition, preferences, and limitations as well through self-assessment and analysis. This can take three forms:

Emotional Awareness: Understanding one’s own emotions and also its effects. Individuals having this competence are good at:

• Understanding which emotions they are experiencing and the reasons associated with it.

• Understanding the connectivity between what they feel and why they think, behave or talk in a particular manner.

• Recognizing how the performance is affected by their feelings.

• Having a clear awareness of personal values as well as goals.

Accurate Self-Assessment: Having an accurate assessment of one’s own strengths as well as weaknesses. People having this competence have the following competencies:

• Have a clear idea about their personal strengths as well as weaknesses.

• They learn from experience and are reflective in nature.

• Are open to transparent and a fair feedback, new ideas, continual learning, and self-improvement.

• They have a good sense of humour and a clear perspective about various propositions.

Self Confidence: This implies being sure about one’s own self-worth as well as capabilities. People who have this competence are capable of:

• Maintain a presence of their own and project them with a sense of confidence.

• Do have the guts for voicing out unpopular views and assertively speaking out what is right.

• Are good at making and implementing sound decisions under challenging or pressurizing circumstances. They are highly decisive.

Self-Regulation

Self Control: People with a good sense of self-control are capable of managing impulsive feelings or disturbed emotions. People having this competence can effectively:

• Manage their distressful emotions as well as their impulsive feelings.

• Have a good ability to maintain their calm and composure even under testing circumstances.

• They remain focused and possess a clear sense of perception even under pressure.

Trustworthiness: This is about maintaining high standards of integrity and honesty. Individuals with this competency can:

• Can behave and act in an ethical manner.

• Can establish trust by way of being reliable and authentic.

• They readily admit their personal mistakes.

• They have a strong capability of taking difficult stands even if they are unpopular.

Conscientiousness: Individuals with this kind of competence:

• Are capable of meeting the commitments, and they believe in living up to their promises.

• They have a strong sense of personal accountability for achieving their predefined objectives.

• Are much organized and extremely careful while handling their work assignments.

Adaptability: Individuals with this kind of competence are much flexible towards dealing with the change:

• They can proactively handle rapidly changing priorities and demands

• They mould their responses as per the requirements of the changing circumstances.

• Are very much flexible in responding to various events or circumstances.

Innovativeness: Individuals having this kind of competence are quite creative, can think outside the box and are open to new ideas.

• They explore fresh ideas from various sources.

• Give importance to original solutions to various problems.

• They are innovators and are good at new idea generation

Self Motivation

Achievement Drive: Individuals with this competency are driven for achieving superior benchmarks at work and achieving excellence. Such individuals are:

• Are highly objective driven.

• Establish challenging goals and work towards it by taking calculated risks for reaching their goals.

• They try to identify or explore alternate ways of working by gathering information and details.

• Acquire skills and the desired learning for achieving continuous improvement in performance.

Commitment: Individuals having this competence are:

• More capable of making individual as well as sacrifices in the group for realizing the larger goals of the organization.

• They are guided by the core values of the groups in implementing decisions and making choices.

• They explore the opportunities or possibilities for achieving the group’s mission.

Initiative: People having this kind of opportunities:

• Proactively tap the available opportunities or work towards the potential opportunities.

• Set super-ordinate goals and work hard for realizing their goals

• They are capable of changing the rules and deal with red tapism when it comes to completion of their jobs.

Optimism: Individuals with this competency are:

• Persistent in working towards their goals despite their limitations and setbacks.

• Are guided by the hope for achieving success in their initiatives instead of the fear of failure.

Social Competence

Social Awareness:

Empathy: It means understanding the feelings of other individuals by stepping in their shoes and showing a concern towards them:

• Empathetic Individuals are active listeners and pay attention to emotional signals.

• Are more sensitive and understand other’s perspectives.

• Extend help by analyzing other’s needs and requirements.

Service Orientation: Individuals having this competence:

• Understand other’s needs and try to match them with their products or the services.

• Explore the possibilities to enhance customer loyalty by achieving higher satisfaction.

• Offer the required assistance comfortably.

• They provide the right kind of advice by understanding the perspective of the customers.

Facilitating Others: Individuals with this competency are good at:

• Acknowledging and rewarding people’s strengths, achievements and improvements.

• Provide constructive feedback and develop people by assessing their developmental requirements.

• Provide ample opportunities for growth by offering challenging assignments, coaching and mentoring teams.

Leveraging from the Diversity: Individuals with this competency are capable of:

• Relating well with the people from diverse backgrounds

• They are very much sensitive to worldwide views and diverse opinions in the groups

• They consider diversity as an opportunity and create a conducive environment where diversity can create further opportunities.

Politically More Aware: Such individuals are politically more aware and have a good understanding of the power relationships.

Social Skills

Influence: Individuals with such competence are more persuasive, can efficiently gather support and build consensus by using complex strategies and can deliver presentations that are appealing to the listeners.

Communication: People with such competence are capable of sending effective and clear information or messages, can deal with difficult issues comfortably and focus on open communication.

Leadership: Leaders are capable of inspiring and guiding people for driving superior performance. They always lead by setting good examples for their teams.

Act as Catalyst of Change: As catalysts of change they understand the need for change and try their level best to remove the barriers to change through effective strategies.

Conflict Management: People with such competencies are capable of negotiating the differences and resolve conflicts by devising win-win solutions and encouraging open discussions.

Facilitating Nurturing Relationships or Strengthening Bond: The individuals with this kind of competence are capable of developing mutually beneficial relationships.

Improving Team Capabilities and Facilitating Cooperation or Collaborative relationships: Such Individuals work towards shared goals and work towards synergy.