Psychology Today defines emotional intelligence as the ability to manage not only your own
emotions but also the emotions of others. This includes three separate skills:
 Identifying and naming emotions
 Applying emotions to problem solving when necessary
 Regulating your own emotions and knowing when to help regulate the emotions of others
These emotional intelligence skills can come into play in virtually every industry. In the most basic
example, think of healthcare providers who are working with families of chronically or terminally ill
people. Emotionally intelligent employees will be better able to meet the needs of the patients and
their families than those who do not really understand how to regulate their own emotions (or
problem solve when emotions run high).
In other settings, such as on a jobsite, emotional intelligence can help employees identify the real
underlying issues when they are working, rather than being swept away by anger or frustration. It can
also be especially beneficial for teachers and your front-line managers.
Emotionally Intelligent People Outperform – people with exceptional IQs 70% of the time.
Why? Because emotionally intelligent employees have a high dose of two important skills: personal
competence and social competence.
Personally competent employees do not go off the rails whenever something disappointing happens.
They show resilience and an ability to persist in the face of personal challenges.
These same employees also demonstrate a higher level of social competence. They are able to “read
the room” for better communication and understanding. They know how to manage this information
to successfully interact with people from all walks of life (and in every kind of mood).
Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace May Include:
 Financial gain for employees: People with well-developed emotional intelligence may
earn up to nearly $30,000 more a year than those without them
 Success for your company: Of top performers, 90% have a high EI
Job Success: With personal accomplishments, 58% of your job success is based on EI (emotional
intelligence) Emotional intelligence skills are difficult to measure and challenging to teach, but it can
be done.
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Emotional Intelligence – Is a Top Needed Industry Skill:
According to the Future of Jobs report1 emotional intelligence entered into the Top 10 most needed
skills in industry in 2020. With the advent of more and more technology-driven processes, less
emphasis is placed on technical ability, with success being attributed to those with the perfect blend of
self and social awareness.
They are more likely to stay calm under pressure, resolve conflict effectively and lead by example.
People with average intellect tend to outperform those with the highest intelligence quotient (IQ) if
they have emotional intelligence (EQ). IQ (low)+EQ >IQ(high)
Job candidates with higher emotional intelligence who were hired sold over $90,000 more per year
than their colleagues. Those figures represent a net revenue increase of over $2.5 million.
So where do PhDs fit into the puzzle? With high IQs, impressive education accolades, and insatiable
ambitions to do meaningful work, PhD students and postdocs are force to deal with high-stakes
emotions regularly.
During graduate and postdoctoral research, PhDs are constantly engaged in emotional intelligence
training. The problem is, most don’t know it.
PhDs have to face:
 Taking criticism
 Having thoughtful discussions on complex issues
 Dealing with difficult advisors and committee members
 Showing empathy towards fellow graduate students and helping each other
Through it all, most PhDs manage to stay emotionally balanced through extreme situation.
As a result, the PhDs develop what is called academic emotional intelligence.
Academic Emotional Intelligence Skills PhDs Have:
 Emotionally intelligent people get angry, sad, and even have outbursts. They key is that
emotionally intelligent people know how to express the right emotions at the right times. It
is not a talent that you have to be born with. Not the case. Emotional intelligence is a skill
that can be developed over time. During the PhD program you did just that.
 You gained self-management and relationship management skills that allowed you to
overcome your tyrannical advisor, the endless number of experimental failures, and the
pressure to complete your degree, get your papers published, and/or get your next grant
funded.

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Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, 2020
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5 Academic Emotional Intelligence Skills that Help You Get Hire in Industry2:

1. The ability to embrace challenge – getting a PhD, finding solutions to complicated
   scientific phenomena, created hypotheses to disprove, stayed calm under pressure
2. The ability to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses – therefore you learn to
   collaborate with experts to complete projects. You recognize that by asking for help, you
   improve your own knowledge base. This is called self-awareness
3. The ability to let go of mistakes – if you wallowed in self-pity over mistakes, you would
   never graduate. Instead you learn from your mistakes. PhDs fail forward
4. The ability to deal with constructive criticism – you learn to respond to criticism without
   being defensive, buy by being grateful for the feedback. You don’t have the luxury of being
   defensive or argumentative during the program
5. The ability to resolve conflict effectively – academia is often rife with conflict that can arise
   from anywhere. You have to find a way to work cohesively or risk prolonging your
   academic career. You have no choice but to find peaceful resolutions and not let toxic
   people prevent you from moving forward and the same in industry
   Emotional intelligence skills can be learned; it does not always come natural. Awareness of your EI is
   the first step in building the skill to reap the benefits in your academic and professional career.