A recent blog post from Select International debates the importance of emotional intelliegence and adaptability in healthcare.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on Select International's website.
We’ve seen the emotional intelligence boom over the past few decades. It’s widely recognized that there is something beyond IQ that matters in performance no matter the role. We know it’s true in healthcare, too. Research continues to show that behavioral competencies like empathy, social and self-awareness, and communication (all sub-constructs of the concept of emotional intelligence) influence physician and nursing effectiveness. Clinical skills, technical skills, and knowledge will always be the baseline – but how these skills are applied and how professionals handle all of the components of their job that aren’t strictly determined by clinical and technical knowledge are the performance differentiators. Consider:
- How providers interact with patients and families – communicate with them, educate them, and engage them in their own care.
- How providers interact with each other to effectively and efficiently deliver care with regard to a single patient or designing new, more effective care delivery models.
- How providers handle stress, varying workloads, and balance managing their own lives with their commitment to their organization and patients.
- How providers lead other providers, staff, and entire organizations.
- How they manage increasing – and increasingly diverse – demands of the job.
But Fratto proposes that adaptability, not EQ,- might be the primary predictor of success in the future. As technology evolves at an exponential rate, humans are forced to learn faster than at any time in our history. She says, “Behaviors we’ve honed for decades will become obsolete in a few short years.” As a result, our ability to adapt may become our most important attribute and most predictive of success or failure.
She postulates that AQ can be improved – that people have an innate level of adaptability (and we’ve all seen this), but that people can improve their ability to adapt and there will be a growing industry providing tools and strategies to boost AQ (including pharmaceuticals, training, games, and media). Click here to continue>>
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