Relevance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership, Burnout and Training in the Healthcare sector

This article aims to explain the components of emotional intelligence (EI) and investigate the benefits of today’s healthcare system, with a focus on surgery. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to comprehend their own emotions as well as the emotions of others with whom they interact. Higher individual EI has been linked to various benefits, including reduced stress, burnout, and increased job satisfaction.

Highlights

• Professionals with a higher EI can generate more sales and manage difficult situations while remaining calm under pressure.
• EI and situational awareness can decrease emotions such as anger and stress, which are potential precursors to bullying behavior.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as both a trait (Petrides et al., 2016) and an ability distinct from general cognitive ability (IQ). It is the awareness, control, and expression of one’s emotions as well as the ability to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically (Fiori & Vesely-Maillefer, 2018; Petrides et al., 2016). For many years, the business world has recognized EI as a potential hidden driver of improved performance (Li et al., 2019). Professionals with a higher EI can generate more sales and manage difficult situations while remaining calm under pressure. They can effectively lead others and are valued coworkers far beyond their lower EI counterparts (Keller et al., 2020). The medical community has recently begun to recognize the potential benefits of EI for both patients and staff (Sharp et al., 2020).EI is a person’s ability to recognize and respond to their own emotions as well as the emotions of others with whom they interact. (Fiori & Vesely-Maillefer, 2018). Emotional intelligence refers to an individual’s perception of emotions as well as their ability to understand and regulate such emotions during daily interactions (Pekaa et al., 2020). Instead of allowing their emotions to control them, the surgeon must exert control over them. The ability to do so is thought to be advantageous in many aspects of communication and performance (Sharp et al., 2020).