No one is immune to self-questioning and everyone has moments where they secondguess whether they have what it takes to overcome their EQ challenges and achieve their
goals.
Is it time for you to STOP and take a step back to assess the emotions you are feeling
and why you are feeling them? Is it time to put your self-care first?
Through it all, most PhDs manage to stay emotionally balanced through extreme
situation. As a result, PhDs develop what is called academic emotional intelligence.
Academic Emotional Intelligence Skills That 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 will do just that –
learn how to develop your academic emotional intelligence.
There are correlations with emotional intelligence self-management and what PhDs
have to face in a doctoral program such as:
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
You gained self-management and relationship management skills that allowed you to
overcome your tyrannical advisor, the endless number of experimental failures, the
pressure to complete your degree, pressure to get your papers published, and get
your next grant funded.
Here are 5 academic emotional intelligence skills that will help you get hire in
industry1 and be successful in your doctoral program:
1
Cheeky Scientist, Catherine Sorbara,PhD
- Ability to embrace challenge – getting a PhD, finding solutions to
complicated scientific phenomena, created hypotheses to disprove, stayed
calm under pressure - Ability to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses – 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 - 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 - Ability to deal with constructive criticism – you learn to respond to
criticism without being defensive and to be grateful for the feedback. You
don’t have the luxury of being defensive or argumentative during the
program - 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