Who practices the 7 Habits is Emotionally Intelligent?

1. Self-awareness
Self-awareness means always knowing what you feel and what your feelings mean. You should also know how your feelings are affecting other people in your surroundings.

You need to understand your strengths and weaknesses and be aware of what you need to to use them both appropriately.

3. Motivation
People with high emotional intelligence are also very good at motivating themselves without needing external support.

This means that they have a high quality standard for themselves and others.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence set goals and motivate themselves to reach those goals. They also have a great ability to motivate others by understanding what motivates them on an individual level.

Hi Luis,

I believe an individual who truly practices the “7 habits of HE people” is emotionally intelligent. However, I believe an individual who practices modalities of Mindfulness (as an example) is taking a deeper dive into the realm of EI, to the extent that they will hold an “EI - black belt,” versus a lower-end belt under the 7-habits.

I did a blog posting on “Self-Regulation” if you are interested: What you feel vs. What you know -- the domain of self regulation

George,
First I said that I was not fan of self-help books, never said that emotional intelligence is self-help. Second I do not agree with you that practical intelligence would be a given state for a project manager, nothing is given all must be worked and trained and even so there are remarkable, good, reasonable and bad project managers.

Third the concept is not mine is from Robert Sternberg and The triarchic theory of intelligence incorporates three types of intelligence.

Practical intelligence is the intelligence of common sense reasoning. Some people call it street smarts. It’s the ability to think on your feet in everyday dilemmas that require immediate solutions.

This form of intelligence also helps in navigating tough negotiations and embracing challenges on the fly. Those with practical intelligence are adaptive and reflexive. They change their approach to suit the requirements of the environment and situation.

Those with strong practical intelligence stand out.
Here are two crucial habits that will help you grow your practical intelligence:
1 - Openness and flexibility
2 - Solution-focused thinking

So you must also desire and aquire and develop like emotional intelligence.

I believe all so called normal persons have some degree of every denominated intelligence, some more developed than others , it's our responsability to find what are our week points and develop to balance our actions through life or project management if you prefer.

Alexandre.

Alexandre,

The practical intelligence, that is, as you stated, “how to solve daily problems,” would be a given for a project manager; otherwise, one would not be able to perform their duties.

Emotional Intelligence is not self-help; it’s a practical skill (i.e., a soft skill) that one must desire and then acquire. With that in mind, Mindfulness is the same, and when put together with EI -- leadership potential is unbounded.

My point is this: In the context of leadership and project management, EI and Mindfulness reside in the practical realm. Are their stigmas associated with them, yes, but these are largely carry-overs from their therapy basis.

Luis
I agree mostly about your description of EI. I call the last component not social skills but influence in the context of leadership. My view on EI is expressed in this article I created on LinkedIn based on your nudging the topic here. Thanks for stimulating.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Know oneself
Accept responsibility for oneself
Plan for oneself
Recognize the "oneselfness" in others (they are no different than you)

Most definitions of EQ do not include the last point - understanding the emotions of others. I think this is key to be truly emotionally intelligent.

As to the Seven Habits of Effective People, there are common elements with EQ and I don't believe one can be an effective leader without a high degree of EQ. However I see EQ as a state whereas Seven Habits is more of a procedure or process (a checklist?),
Someone with a high degree of EQ would tend to have the Seven Habits (most anyway) but following the Seven Habits would not necessarily result is a high degree of EQ.

I've never read that book or heard of that thesis. I am familiar with the discussion of emotional intelligence and how it applies to effective leadership. I know that having a strong sense of empathy is key to that.

Usually you see emotional intelligence being applied to servant leadership rather than the more familiar "lead from the front" leadership style.

The habits to me are rigid. Habits change and reform depending on circumstances and events.

So to have set habits as described by Covey and a strong emotional intelligence doesn't seem to fit.

Personally, I like kaizen-constant improvement in everything in every way every day.

I'd like to add

1. Compassion
2. Resilience

Luis,

I face challenges in motivation for the team members who work in a Project. There are groups at different levels in my project starting from Functional managers, individual contributors like developers, testers and infrastructure team and architects. All these groups have different motivational factors based on the role they play in the project. While as I project manager I get motivated when I complete the project within time and budget but fail to cope up to the motivational factors of the Stakeholders involved. This sometimes hampers the progress as individuals lack passion in the delivery. Any suggestions would really be helpful

Thanks
Soumen