Emotional Intelligence (EI) training can improve employee wellbeing and prevent burn-out in high-stress environments, University of Queensland research has found.
Dr Jemma King from UQ's School of Psychology said EI training has proven beneficial for high performance athletes including Formula 1 drivers and crew in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with potential for people in other workplaces.
"Our team of researchers conducted an in-depth study with Australian Special Forces soldiers to determine whether ability-based EI training could improve their stress regulation and performance," Dr King said.
"We spent a lot of time interviewing the soldiers to understand how they would emotionally and physically respond in high-stress scenarios, such as jumping out of a plane.
"Half the group was then given emotional intelligence training, including skills in emotional perception of self, emotional understanding and emotional regulation.
"The soldiers participated in realistic high-pressure activities including memory recall of tactical combat information, shooting accuracy and cognitive maths performance under stress."
The researchers tested the participants' salivary cortisol to determine their stress-levels before, during and after each activity.
"We found those who had undergone the EI training had significantly lower cortisol levels and performed more accurately in all the tasks," Dr King said.
"This shows an ability to regulate emotion and meet the demands of each task while avoiding the performance-degrading effects of effective stress responses."
Research co-author Associate Professor Yiqiong Li from UQ's Business School said emotional intelligence training could be a beneficial stress-management tool for many workplaces.
"It is particularly useful in defence, but also government and corporate jobs," Dr Li said.
"By lowering stress and improving regulation skills, EI training helps reduce burnout and psychological strain - major contributors to absenteeism and turnover.
"It also has great potential in corporate jobs where employees regularly navigate complex, high‑pressure interpersonal and task demand."
Dr King said in the age of artificial intelligence, employers should value staff who were emotionally 'in tune'.
"Being the most skilled or smartest person in the room doesn't cut it anymore because everyone has access to AI," she said.
"The secret to success will be those leaders who are emotionally intelligent and who can create warmth, trust and charisma.
"Understanding how your body reacts under pressure, what can conjure a particular emotion and how emotions can change are invaluable skills that can also transfer to home life."
Read the research published in Scientific Reports.
Collaboration and acknowledgements
The research co-authors include Emeritus Professor Neal Ashkanasy from UQ's Business School and Professor Nicole Gillespie, University of Melbourne.
