Introduction
Interpersonal communication occurs between two people or between individuals in two groups and can be influenced by various factors. Among the factors that influence communication is one’s ability to relay a message, hence the need to have certain communication skills or qualities. The ability to communicate is highly influenced by emotional intelligence since it facilitates the proper delivery or relaying of certain communication cues. Emotional intelligence, commonly abbreviated EQ or EI is a term used to describe an individual’s ability to recognize, understand and manage their emotions, as well as recognize, understand and influence those of other individuals. The presence or absence of emotional intelligence has a certain influence on interpersonal communication, which may explain whether or not IQ and EQ are mutually exclusive. The aim of this essay, therefore, is to describe how the absence or presence of emotional intelligence affects interpersonal communication.
Emotional intelligence requires one to recognize, understand and manage their emotions, as well as recognize, understand and influence those of other individuals. The presence of Emotional intelligence may positively influence interpersonal communication. Through recognition of one’s emotion during interpersonal communication, one presents themselves in a manner that best suits the delivery of their message (Sinha & Sinha, 2007). Similarly, understanding one’s emotions enables one to effectively employ different communication cues such as touch to express togetherness expressions that improve their ability to engage in interpersonal communication. The ability to manage one’s emotions owing to emotional intelligence facilitates interpersonal communication. This is because managing emotions ensures that the right information is relayed irrespective of one’s emotions (Sinha & Sinha, 2007). For instance, if the CEO of a company is having personal problems at home, the ability to control his/her can have a positive impact on how he/she delegates duties at work, thus facilitating effective interpersonal communication.
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Recognizing, understanding and influencing the emotions of others can influence the sender’s outcome in a positive manner, thus effective interpersonal communication (Sinha & Sinha, 2007). For instance, a salesperson may want to observe and understand the emotions of a potential client in order to establish what to say to the client in order to increase the chances of making a sale. Recognizing and understanding the emotions of the other party during interpersonal communication is important as it eliminates instances of misunderstanding due to lack of assessment of the emotional state of parties. The absence of emotional intelligence creates an instance of misunderstanding, which hinders interpersonal communication. For instance, if a sales guy is pitching a message to persuade a potential client who is emotionally distressed, he/she will fail if they do not try to calm down the potential client and positively influence their emotion such that they can listen to the pitch.
IQ and EQ are not mutually exclusive since there is no correlation between the two. It is possible that one may have a high IQ, but they may not also show emotional intelligence (Presaud, 2017) . This is because being smart does not influence one’s ability to recognize, understand and manage one’s emotions as well as to recognize, understand and influence those of other individuals. Similarly, having emotional intelligence only facilitates interaction between individuals and not that a person is smart or has a high IQ.
In conclusion, the presence or absence of emotional intelligence influences interpersonal communication, which may be either positive or negative. Presence of emotional intelligence positively influences interpersonal communication through the establishment of mutual understanding. However, the lack of emotional intelligence creates instances of misunderstanding, thus negatively influencing interpersonal communication. IQ and EI or EQ are not mutually exclusive because they are two different things and having either does not mean one has the other.
References
Persaud, R. S. (2017). The Mastery of You . Waldorf Publishing.
Sinha, S., & Sinha, D. (2007). Emotional Intelligence and Effective Communication. Management Communication: Trends & Strategies , 450-460.
