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Identifying your emotional response (conscious and subconscious) should be an integral part of decision‐making. In addition to using your own emotional response to guide your career path and decision‐making, it is important to understand how your emotional response affects other people.
This self‐awareness further extends into identifying your own weaknesses, accepting them and dealing with them. The ability to change means that you need to be able to accept criticism and adapt your path accordingly.
11.3.2 Managing Emotions
Recognizing your own emotional response in itself is not enough to display EQ. You need to be able to manage your emotions. This includes not only how you display your emotions (e.g. losing your temper, coming across as out of control, angry, etc.), but also your own internal management of the emotions. People respond differently when they are confronted with a difficult or stressful situation. People with a high competency in this area (high EQ) will remain in control of their emotions. In contrast, people who struggle in this aspect will allow these emotions to spin out of control, essentially highjacking their response. In this scenario, a person's thoughts spin out of control and he or she becomes increasingly agitated and frustrated with the situation, preventing the person from thinking clearly about solutions and strategies.
Regulating emotion is not merely a function of your personality. There are a number of coping strategies. Seeking out activities that put you into a positive frame of mind is a strategy that has been suggested by numerous experts (Salovey and Mayer 1990). This may include engaging in a sport, social activity, or more solitary activity, such as meditation.
Additionally, your surroundings can affect how you are able to regulate your emotion. It is important to regulate your choice of associates. You should surround yourself with people who are supportive and give you positive (but realistic) feedback. Of course, you must also present yourself in a way that encourages people to have a positive view. This includes acting in a professional manner, being on time, and being respectful of your colleague's time. Another interesting way of regulating your emotion is to engage in altruistic acts. This idea has been gaining more attention in recent years.
Finally, the ability to recognize that mood is temporary and under your control is vital to obtaining a mental state of emotional control. You should not seek to change your mood or suppress negative feelings. Rather, use your current mood to your advantage. In a positive state of mind, you might imagine achieving more lofty goals, while in a negative state of mind, you might be more likely to think of an alternative plan in the case these goals don't work out. Use these different moods as an opportunity for creative thinking and formulation of alternative plans. A negative feeling about a particular task may also serve to focus your attention on an area that needs attention. This can help you prioritize.
11.3.3 Motivation
Motivation, or persistence, in the face of challenging tasks is a major indicator of success. This is the result of a belief in the self (self‐confidence). People who displays high competence in this area have a strong sense of self, including a strong definition of personal values, but avoid overestimating or being unrealistic about their own capabilities. Both an overblown sense of self and an underestimation of your own skills can result in low levels of motivation and persistence. People with overblown senses of their own capabilities may overreach, for example, applying for a position to which they are not qualified. This overblown sense of self can result in discouragement (when they are not accepted for the position) and an inability to accept criticism. The ability to accept criticism and learn from these mistakes and criticisms can result in inability to improve and grow in one's career. Conversely, having a lack of belief in one's own skills can result in trepidation. This can hold an individual back from contributing to workplace discussions and trying new procedures. This fear of seeming inept can have a negative impact on the career path.
It is important to be aware of your own strengths and weakness, and then to believe in your underlying abilities even in the face of failures, setbacks, and challenges. Various studies have shown that the ability to continue with a challenging task is instrumental in success (Babineaux and Krumboltz 2013).
Achievement of this motivation can be fostered by choices in your career path. Various studies have indicated that intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic. A desire to help people (e.g. patients or the group your research focuses on) or a sense of interest in your field will help you maintain motivation over the long term. Recognition, social status, and money – all extrinsic motivators – will have less of an impact on your motivation.
All of this ties into the awareness of your own emotions. An analysis of how you feel about your career path, positions you are considering, and which subfield to enter should all be influenced by the level of intrinsic motivation you can muster.
11.3.4 Empathy/Social Skills
Those who perceive the emotions of other around them will be more likely to have smoother interpersonal relationships, including workplace relationships. This is important in having the people you work with operate as a team. One poignant area today is the ability to give the person your full attention (the principle of presence). This means actually listening to the person, rather than just planning what you are going to say next, or avoiding looking at a laptop screen or phone during a conversation (Ioannidou and Konstantikaki 2008; Goleman 2007, 1995).
In a workplace setting, such presence should be implemented by listening to the viewpoints of your colleagues and considering their opinion genuinely and with interest. Hearing, examining, and commenting on other people's experiences can help you develop this skill. If you are teaching, then listening to and understanding the views of the students can demonstrate active listening and has been shown to increase the EQ of the students in the classroom (Ioannidou and Konstantikaki 2008).
11.4 Developing EQ
EQ is an important, but also a learnable quality. The ability to develop this skill hinges on a willingness to accept and deal with areas in which you may be lacking. Ironically, those with a lower EQ tend to be less willing to work on these skills (Sheldon et al. 2014). Those with higher EQ expressed a greater willingness to develop these skills and improve. Thus, the first step in developing a high EQ is to be willing to identify areas in which you may be lacking and a willingness to improve upon these areas.
While professional programs do exist and are often part of medical school training, there are a few things you can do to improve your EQ on your own. Some are suggested above and include regulating your emotion by engaging in activities that you find pleasurable, surrounding yourself with colleagues that are supportive, making career choices that focus on your core values, and actively engaging and listening to people you interact with. All of these skills take time to develop. The typical time period is considered to be between three and six months.
EQ is an important quality to develop regardless of your planned career path. In the scientific and medical field, the development of EQ‐related skills can allow individuals to effectively communicate with colleagues, supervisors, patients, and the general public. Importantly, one should remember, whatever weaknesses or strengths one possess in this area, they can be improved upon and learned with significantly positive results.
References
1 Babineaux, R. and Krumboltz, J. (2013). Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing can Help you Win. New York, NY: Tarcher.
2 Daus, C.S. and Ashkanasy, N.M. (2005). The case for the ability based model of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior 26 (4): 453–466.
3 Davis, M. (2004). Test your EQ. London: Piatkus.
4 Fox, M. (2013). Putting emotional intelligence to work. Journal of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 113 (9): 1138–1143.
5 Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
6 Goleman