Emotional Intelligence 3.0: The Next Wave Of Leadership Thought Leadership
What is Psychological and Neurological
Research Teaching Us about the
Formation of Emotional Intelligence?
Interestingly, psychological and neurological research
on trauma is helping us better understand (1) why
people have different levels of EQ, and (2) how to help
people develop higher levels of EQ.
First, let’s define trauma. Trauma is a circumstance
where the stress of that circumstance exceeds one’s
body’s capacity to take on that stress.
What scientists are finding is that when people
experience trauma, there are common and
predictable cascading consequences to a body’s
neurological system. These consequences cascade
as follows:
●● Domino #1 – Disassociation – The mind and
the body disconnect. Specifically, the nervous
system shuts down and people commonly go
numb. While this is immediate, the effects can
be permanent.
●● Domino #2 – Disintegration – Our brain
is made up of three regions: reptilian,
mammalian, and human brains. When
disintegration occurs, the reptilian and
mammalian brains operate on overdrive and
the human brain struggles to regulate the other
two brain regions. This leads to the toppling of
the next two dominos.
●● Domino #3 – Misencoding - A healthy nervous
system sees safe things as being safe and
dangerous things as being dangerous.
Disintegration causes people to start to see
safe things as being dangerous (e.g., admitting
we are wrong) and dangerous things as being
safe (e.g., alcohol abuse).
●● Domino #4 – Shrinking Window of Tolerance
– Disintegration causes one’s nervous system
to become more sensitive to stress and it
becomes easier for that person to be thrown
into fight, flight, or freeze mode.
How Do These Consequences of Trauma
Connect to EQ?
First, research is teaching us that when people
experience disassociation (Domino #1), it inhibits
their ability to get in touch with their own feelings
and emotions, which decreases their ability to be
self-aware and to self-regulate. Stated differently,
disassociation inhibits the first primary aspect of EQ:
Being able to accurately recognize and effectively
manage one’s internal emotions.
Second, research is also teaching us that when
people experience disintegration (Domino #2) and its
two consequences (Dominos #3 and #4), it causes
them to be overly preoccupied with their own safety,
comfort, and belonging such that this preoccupation
of oneself obstructs their ability to be aware and
responsive to others. Stated differently, disintegration
inhibits the second primary aspect of EQ: Being able
to accurately recognize and effectively navigate the
emotions of others
Together, what we are learning is that leaders’ EQ
level is largely predicated upon the degree to which
they have unhealed trauma in their past. This has
huge implications for leadership development and
effectiveness.
What Are the Implications of Connecting
Trauma to Emotional Intelligence?
When we understand the connection between
trauma and EQ, it suggests that if we want leaders to
improve their effectiveness by operating at a higher
EQ level, we need to help them heal from their past
trauma.
Leadership Excellence presented by HR.com DECEMBER 2021 33 Submit Your Articles
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