Emotional Intelligence (El) refers to the capability of a person to manage and control his or her emotions and possess the ability to perceive and manage the emotions of others as well. It includes following levels:

• Perceiving emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to perceive them accurately. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
• Reasoning with emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to.
• Understanding emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. For example, if your boss is acting angrily, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work, or he might have got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or he’s been fighting with his partner.
• Managing emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a crucial part of emotional intelligence and the highest level. Regulating emotions and responding appropriately as well as responding to the emotions of others are all important aspects of emotional management.

Role of emotional intelligence in administration and governance

• Policy implementation: Public servants need to know emotions, moods and drives of persons at whom public policy is targeted for better acquaintance with the nature of problems in society and their possible solutions.
• Stay composed under pressure: A public servant with high El doesn’t flare up or lose control under difficult circumstances.
• Risk-taking: In a developing country like India, bold decisions are needed in discharging the responsibility of public services and El enables this risk-taking amongst public servants without being erratic or extremely unpredictable in their behaviour.
• Inspire a shared vision: El helps a public servant in convincing others that he understands others’ needs and has their best interests at heart. .
• Challenge the process: An emotionally intelligent public servant strives for change. One of the key emotional intelligence skills that are needed in order to challenge the status quo is flexibility. Flexible people are more likely to try new things, take risks, and face new challenges without fear.
• Enable others to act: El helps a public servant in realising his self-regard and develop interpersonal skills, which help him in fostering collaboration and building trust with others. This trust enables sharing and delegation of power with others.
• Motivating others: El helps in realising the importance of rewarding people for their participation, which goes a long way in motivating them to be part of the team and carry out governance measures with more vigour and energy.

Public servants are the trustees of public interest and are entrusted to make and implement policies. Therefore, they need to be emotionally intelligent, because without El it would be difficult to be empathetic to different sections of the society, to be firm in their approach, and to be good change agents.