The key pillars of emotional intelligence — self awareness, empathy and the ability to navigate one's own and perceive others' emotions — are important competencies for any job that requires interpersonal interactions. Healthcare, an intimately interpersonal industry, demands high EQs in all roles, from the hospital C-suite to clinicians to registration staff. However, a new report from emotional intelligence network Six Seconds shows EQ levels are trending downward.
Six Seconds' annual report, "The State of the Heart," is created from the company's Emotional Intelligence Assessment database, which includes survey responses from more than 100,000 people from over 127 countries.
The report shows a decline across the board of various EQ metrics from 2011 to 2015. Globally, people are more emotionally volatile, less compassionate and less self-motivated.
Here are three more findings from the report.
1. From 2014 to 2015, the global population declined in its ability to navigate emotions (-3.3 percent); engage intrinsic motivation (-2.9 percent); and increase empathy (-2.4 percent). However, the practice of consequential thinking, or pausing to think before taking action, increased by 0.6 percent.
2. The Americas was the region with the fastest decline in EQ, with a rate of -2.6 percent.
3. Healthcare was rated the fourth-highest sector in terms of EQ, behind logistics and transportation, education and hospitality and travel. The sector with the lowest EQ was IT and telecom, followed by government, industrial and finance.