Working through the Assessment
To assess one’s emotional intelligence, the following aspects need to be tested: awareness and management of emotions, the ability to motivate oneself, empathy, and interpersonal skills. Discussing the emotional intelligence as a concept and a skill Stein and Book (2010) characterize it as one’s ability to recognize and acknowledge their emotions, be able to distinguish between various feelings they experience, and understand the effect these emotions and feelings may have on the individuals around.
My Emotional Intelligence in Terms of Leadership
As a scholar-practitioner in public health leadership, I seem to have quite a high level of self-awareness and the ability to recognize and analyze my own emotions. This quality is the basis for the productive interpersonal skills, which Koh and Nowinski (2010) view as a necessary ability for a public health leader. Being able to analyze my emotions and address them from the perspective of their impact on the people around I, as a public health leader, could become an excellent communicator, conflict mediator, and negotiator. At the same time, my self-motivation skills are rather underdeveloped. This is not a new knowledge for me as I have noticed how the lack of self-discipline sometimes impacted my plans and tasks. It is possible, that my self-awareness was the quality that helped to notice this drawback earlier, and it also might enhance my ability to address this disadvantage by recognizing it when it is in action and preventing it from progressing and affecting my plans.
New Insights Gained Based on the Results of the Emotional Intelligence Assessment
As emphasized by Nahavandi (2015), the emotional connection between the followers and their leader is crucial to the success of any project they are involved in. Besides, Knight et al. (2015) explore the importance of trust between the leader and the followers as the key component in public health leadership and conclude that at the perceived risk rates are high in the health care settings, trust as a determinant is vital for the fruitful cooperation. Subsequently, the insight the assessment provided me with was my ability to earn trust through the application of the emotional intelligence and some of its aspects such as empathy, the ability to recognize emotions in myself and others.
How These New Insights Might Impact My Future Role, as a Public Health Leader
The assessment provided me with an insight that my emotional self-awareness and the ability to recognize my own feelings and acknowledge those of the other people may help me achieve excellence at interpersonal skills. That way, my future leadership may serve as the source of guidance and new knowledge for the followers. Besides, as a person capable of earning trust and communicating on a deeper level, I might be useful as a leader who convinces the peers and the followers to adopt new practices and innovative operations.
Reference List
Knight, J., Bush, H., Mase, W., Riddell, M., Liu, M., & Holsinger, J. (2015). The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Conditions of Trust among Leaders at the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Frontiers In Public Health, 3, 33.
Koh, H. K., & Nowinski, J. M. (2010). Health Equity and Public Health Leadership. American Journal of Public Health, 100(Suppl. 1): S9–S11.
Nahavandi, A. (2015). The art and science of leadership (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Stein, S., & Book, H. (2010). The EQ edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.