According to World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, Emotional Intelligence takes the sixth place in Top 10 Skills You Need To Thrive In 2020, while Complex Problem Solving remains first place, Critical Thinking is second, Creativity is third, People Management is fourth and Coordinating with Others is fifth.

Emotional Intelligence wasn’t included in the list before. So why is this skill rising to the top?

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?

Emotional Intelligence is the ability of understanding and managing emotions, starting with self-awareness and empathy which helps you form healthy relationships with others.

Daniel Goleman cites five domains proposed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in his book, Emotional Intelligence. These are:

  1. Knowing one’s emotions
  2. Managing [one’s] emotions
  3. Motivating oneself
  4. Recognising emotions in others
  5. Handling relationships

COPING WITH STRESS

When you have a better understanding of your emotions and how they affect you as well as others,  you can cope with stress, pressure and difficult situations in general, which is a necessity of any workplace at the time of a crisis when you need to stay calm and motivated to solve a problem.

WORKING WITH OTHERS

Empathy means you can relate to others, communicate well and motivate people at times of conflict, which makes both leading and teamwork much easier and efficient. Your people skills will help you form better relationships with a wide range of people. This talent helps to create a communicative, inspirational and diverse work environment. Openness, listening, putting your own needs aside when necessary, recognizing the feelings of others and the ability to act accordingly are important skills when it comes to collaboration and managing people.

ASSESSMENT SKILLS

Understanding people, what motivates them and the causes of events lead to more accurate assessments of situations and therefore helps you make better decisions and solve problems efficiently. The ability to foresee the consequences and other point of views also helps with damage control and decision making in general.

WILLINGNESS TO IMPROVE

High emotional intelligence helps you see the positive side of things and be more willing to improve, because you’re open to receiving feedback and criticism in work environment.

Source:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution
https://web.sonoma.edu/users/s/swijtink/teaching/philosophy_101/paper1/goleman.htm