Emotional and Social Intelligence for M&mi

To be a leader in M&E there are technical areas you need to be proficient in whether it is understanding the policies, procesos, and procedures of your organization, the requirements of the donor or government, or knowing how to perform the specific actions of completing data collection sheets, calculating ratios, presenting the information graphically, and/or knowing what questions to ask in order to get the right data for decision-making.

And then, there is the other side of being a leader in M&mi. We can call it the relational side which includes what many call “soft” skills. Think of this as working with your team and others in your organization to ensure that what you are doing meets the needs of your stakeholders, and that you get the results you wish to achieve. Your success and the health of the people you serve depend on it!

The identification of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Social Intelligence (SI) came out of studies that tracked people with varying levels of Intelligence (IQ), as traditionally defined in terms of problem-solving, intellectual and conceptual reasoning, etc. They found that the level of IQ alone was not predictive of an individual’s success. This led them to explore other factors and among the first to be identified were EI and SI.

EI can be defined as being aware of your own emotions and self-managing, once you have that awareness. Self-management means not acting out negative emotions (por ejemplo. taking out your anger or stress on someone else), understanding the emotions and needs of others, and building and strengthening relationships as well as understanding how the system works.

One way to look at this in more detail is to take the self-assessment so you can see what specific behaviors constitute EI and SI. We encourage you to take the self-assessment and reflect on what it tells you about yourself and what it might say about the relational dynamics within your family, team or organization. Be honest in your responses. No one else will see the results unless you share them!

We invite you to reflect on these behaviors and to imagine how better M&E results could be attained through the use of improved EI and SI “soft” skills. Please give us a sense of how EI and SI are applied or not applied in your organization and what you would like to see more of.
Share your experiences in the CEEME forum discussion.