So, what is emotional intelligence or EQ (emotional quotient)? Well, it's pretty much what it says on the tin. It's having intellect about emotion; both your own and others. It's about having the ability, either innate or through training, to understand why you or others act in a certain way; what makes you or others 'tick'; about the office politics, with the little 'p'! The book to read s that written by Daniel Goleman, who talks about EIQ as the missing link, the missing part of IQ. The concept has been around since the 1930s but
Read More seems relatively little used in the workplace.

Daniel Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:
1. Knowing your emotions.
2. Managing your own emotions.
3. Motivating yourself.
4. Recognising and understanding other people's emotions.
5. Managing relationships, ie., managing the emotions of others.

You can buy Daniel Goleman's 'Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ' at Amazon

You can take a mini, simple EQ test here: http://www.ihhp.com/quiz.php I did this quiz and was impressed by the simple but thought provoking response. The test only took a few minutes and the feedback gave tasty food for thought! There are lots of test around with varying degrees of detail and accuracy, so have a search around to fnd one that you feel comfortable with.

It is said that for various reasons and thanks to a wide range of abilities, people with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with lower EQ even if their classical IQ - intelectual quotient is average.

Here are some suggestions for developing your own EQ:

http://www.redraventherapy.co.uk/aboutus/blog.html/199-emotional-intelligence-july-2010.html