As the CEO of an international talent company, Terrie Upshur-Lupberger was at a career pinnacle. So why was she resentful and unhappy? A close friend observed, “Terrie, you were out on the skinny branch—you know, the one that breaks easily in a strong wind. You were so busy and overwhelmed and out of touch with your own values, cares, and guiding beliefs that you failed to pay attention to the branch that was about to break.”57 According to Upshur-Lupberger, she had failed to notice that her moods constantly swung toward frustration and exhaustion. Her job satisfaction, productivity, relationships, and results suffered. Worst, she was too busy to realize the deficiencies until she was completely depleted. She said, “I learned that, as a leader, you either pay attention to and manage the moods (including your own) in the organization, or . . . . you ignore them and pay the price.”58 Upshur-Lupberger learned the value of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to: (1) perceive emotions in him or herself and others; (2) understand the meaning of these emotions; and (3) regulate his or her own emotions accordingly, as shown in Exhibit 4-4. People who know their own emotions and are good at reading emotional cues—for instance, knowing why they’re angry and how to express themselves without violating norms—are most likely to have high EI.59

Several studies suggest EI plays an important role in job performance. One study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology found that executive MBA students who performed best on a strategic decision-making task were more likely to incorporate emotion centers of the brain into their choice processes.60 One simulation study showed that students who were good at identifying and distinguishing among their own feelings were able to make more profitable investment decisions.61

Although organizational behavior (OB) is progressing in its understanding of EI, and several studies suggest it plays an important role in job performance, many questions remain unanswered. One relates to proving what EI may predict. For example, while evidence indicates that EI correlates with job performance, the correlation isn’t high and is explained to a large degree by traits such as emotional stability. A second question is about the reliability of EI testing. For example, part of the reason EI has only a modest correlation with job effectiveness is that it is hard to measure—mostly it is measured with self-report inventories, which of course are often far from objective!

All questions aside, EI is wildly popular among consulting firms and in the popular press, and it has accumulated some support in the research literature. Love it or hate it, one thing is for sure—EI is here to stay. So might be our next topic—emotion regulation—an independent concept from emotional labor and emotional intelligence, although they are related.62