Is Emotional Intelligence relevant to Engineers? 6

[PaulaK]

Having recently completed a psychology degree to balance my engineering education, I am trying to gain a better understanding of the whole 'soft skills' debate surrounding engineers. In recent years the concept of Emotional Intelligence has been sweeping through the HR scene and I'm wondering if anyone out there has had any exposure to it and indeed whether you think it has any relevance to engineers in the workplace at all?

(For those of you in the know about EI, I have to make the distinction though that I have a distinct preference for the ability-based Mayer-Salovey-Caruso approach to EI and not the popularised Daniel Goleman or the Bar-On EQi versions of EI.)

 

[casseopeia]

I'm going to go recue that poor little red lamp and put it next to my red Swingline stapler.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[0707]

In a turnaround where you have lots of people working together inside special confined dirty spaces like reactors or columns and where you have several work disciplines teams such as cleaning, mechanical, welding etc. it is important to deal with their emotions in the sense to smooth the work, so that the people involved in the work feel motivated and proud of their role for the success of the job. When you entered inside a column with all that noise of pneumatic tools and hammer strikes mixed with “slag songs” and whistles of “strange singers and musicians” it is a signal that the work is going pretty well. On the contrary if everybody is quarrelling and arguing with bed humour is because there is something wrong with the supervising of those teams. Most of the time is better to have a very good emotional intelligent supervisor than a cognitive one. Everybody has a value.

Regards

Luismarques

“The EQ concept argues that IQ, or conventional intelligence, is too narrow; that there are wider areas of emotional intelligence that dictate and enable how successful we are. Success requires more than IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which has tended to be the traditional measure of intelligence, ignoring essential behavioural and character elements. We've all met people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially and inter-personally inept. And we know that despite possessing a high IQ rating, success does not automatically follow.”

 

[casseopeia]

"We've all met people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially and inter-personally inept."

Yes, I think I’m dating one............

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[Lightcarver]

Hi Folks,

I've enjoyed this thread in its entirety, but I'm a little aghast at all the hostility toward HR reps. Yes, I know there are some out there that have agendas, and some that are, well, clueless. Like in any profession. But, because they have a relatively new tool to measure how an employee performs or doesn't perform doesn't mean they're dangerous or...out to get *you.* It's just another way for them to look at how to do their job better. And, no. I'm not an HR Rep.

And, the handle "Emotional Intelligence" - why all the hostility toward the description? What is intelligence? A manifestation of a high mental capacity, and the faculty of understanding, right? So, being able to understand and comprehend one's own emotions or relate to someone else's accurately - that could be construed as being...emotionally intelligent, no?

 

[HgTX]

The Catbert stereotype comes from somewhere.

HR where I work is *not* here to be my advocate. Read into that what you like about what they *are* here for.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[KENAT]

Seems their main role is to try and save management from law suits.

Senior management comes up with diabolical schemes and HR implement them in such a way as to keep them just this side of the law, most of the time.

At my site in a HR department of 3, 4 people have left in the last year or so.


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[SomptingGuy]

The last time we had a serious round of redundancies, one of those who took a voluntary was our HR manager. It says it all to me.