It is an individual's capacity to understand and control their own emotions, and recognise and manage those of others, so that they and others around them, can be as effective and productive as possible at work.

According to Mayer and Salovey, emotional intelligence is “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).

They break emotional intelligence into four, related parts:

1. Identifying Emotions – the ability to correctly identify how people are feeling.
2. Using Emotions - the ability to create emotions and to integrate your feelings into the way you think.
3. Understanding Emotions - the ability to understand the causes of emotions.
4. Managing Emotions - the ability to figure out effective strategies that use your emotions to help you achieve a goal, rather than being used by your emotions.