Learn why emotional intelligence tactics are the new corporate leadership skill set. These skills aren’t new. They are a new name for deceptive manipulation tactics once deemed unacceptable. We’ll show you the facts and offer you a better, healthier option.
We can apply a spiritual axiom to this topic. The duck principle. It says that if it walks like a duck, has webbed feet like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck by any other name.
In this article, we will explore the history of emotional intelligence (EI). We’ll discuss its origins, the training needed, and the tactics that evolved. Finally, we’ll provide a better alternative: self-awareness development strategies. The goal of this exercise is to give you the facts on which to make an informed decision.
Delving Into Psychological Manipulation Tactics
Why Emotional Intelligence Was Rebranded
Rebranding is a marketing tactic that hides the source of a product or service. For instance, Philip Morris rebranded as Altria. This change helped the company distance itself from health issues linked to tobacco.
When you rebrand something, you can turn something socially unacceptable into something you can sell. Changing the name of something doesn’t alter its essence. It’s why emotional intelligence tactics were rebranded to make them more marketable.
Why has something so inherently destructive been rebranded for corporate consumption? That is simply because these techniques work in the short term. People who manipulate others achieve the goals they set out to accomplish. Profit becomes the bottom line over the cost to the individual and humanity.
Some refer to EI as Emotional Leadership (EL). Others refer to it as Emotional Quotient (EQ) or Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ). The grifters who developed it needed a way to capitalize on it. Companies would not buy antisocial, narcissistic, or deceptive manipulation tactics. So, they rebranded them to give them corporate and social appeal.
Historical Perspective of Deception
Deception is a part of human nature. It became a codified method among the Roma people, also known as Gypsies in Europe, around 1000 CE. They were nomads who created carnivals and sideshows. These events were opportunities to use con artist tactics. By the 16th century, laws were enacted to outlaw their deceptive business tactics. However, you can still get a palm or tarot card reading on every continent.
In the early 20th century, psychologists such as Kurt Lewin and Stanley Milgram explored the concept of deception. They documented the effects of psychological manipulation tactics. In the 1960s, Dr. Paul Ekman studied nonverbal communication, facial expressions, and deception. His work focused on how to hide and read emotional cues.
Our society has laws that prohibit dishonest, disingenuous, deceitful practices. Methods that exploit others for personal gain violate the fundamental principles of trust. These practices encourage other unethical behaviors, undermining the fabric of society. Even if these tactics aren’t always practical, they are still harmful.
So, why are they now so widely accepted? One reason EI is appealing is that the name resembles other scientific processes. Let’s look at some scientific processes with similar names.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
The DSM-5 is a reference book on mental health and brain-related conditions and disorders. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) updates it periodically.
It outlines tactics of deception and psychological manipulation. These psychological methods are linked to antisocial personality disorder. Using them promotes unhealthy narcissism. This disorder affects self-esteem, identity, and how they treat themselves and others. It’s not just arrogance or selfishness. It’s also a lack of empathy. Feelings of superiority often fuel a desire for self-gratification.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) (3) differs from the Emotional Quotient (EQ). Although they sound similar, they assess two completely separate things. The psychologist William Stern (4) was the first to use the term IQ.
The IQ test measures learning capacity. Learning involves the ability to use short-term and long-term memory. It also measures analytical, math, and spatial recognition skills. Your IQ can change over time, but not substantially. The older you are, the more stable your test scores tend to be. The most significant volatility in IQ scores occurs during childhood and adolescence.
Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, differs from emotional intelligence tactics. IQ measures the capacity to learn. EI is about regulating your emotional affect while deciphering the nonverbal cues and emotions of others. With this information, you can guide others to make decisions that favor you.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The standard for measuring mental health is the MMPI. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (5) is a psychometric test. It is used to measure adult personality and psychopathology. Psychopathology (6) is the identification and study of mental disorders.
People with narcissistic and antisocial disorders can master these psychological manipulation tactics quickly. Narcissists use these tools naturally. They practice different ways to manipulate people from an early age. If you don’t come by these tactics naturally, it’s actually a good sign. It means you have a strong moral compass that resists deceit.
What Emotional Intelligence Tactics Training Involves
We call people who use these kinds of psychological manipulation tactics con men. A con man is a term for a “confidence artist.” The con artist learns how to gain the confidence of others to manipulate them. There are four basic steps to the practical side of these techniques:
1. Masking Emotional Affect
Emotional affect is a term in psychology for the outward display of emotions. We often show our emotions with facial expressions and other nonverbal cues. Almost everyone exhibits unconscious reactions, gestures, and movements that reflect their feelings. Recognizing these “tells” is the key people use to predict our emotional states. Insight into these signs enables people to use dark psychological manipulation tactics.
2. Enhancing Self-Observation
The training begins with enhancing self-observation skills. The focus is on learning to read verbal and nonverbal communication. They practice masking and concealing their outward emotional affect (1). It allows an individual to mute their moral compass and empathy for others. This skill set helps them manipulate others by gaining their confidence. Then, they can influence their thinking and behavior.
3. Bypassing the Moral Compass
One thing that stops people from deceiving others is our moral compass. Therefore, most people need to be trained to use the tactics of EI. Many people resist their use because “it doesn’t feel right” to deceive.
4. Leverage Our Natural Instincts
Sociopaths and narcissists come by these skills naturally. People with this personality disorder have no moral objections to these tactics. These tactics enable someone to exploit psychological, emotional, and financial needs. It often leads to decision-making driven by greed. Con artists work in teams to leverage their deception.
Another example of someone who uses these techniques is a card shark. They practice concealing their real emotions while projecting false ones. One accomplishes this kind of emotional smokescreen through various verbal and non-verbal tactics. These are the same tactics used in PM and EI.
Card sharks practice these skills using role-play exercises and a mirror, similar to those used in EI. People who practice these skills can fool lie detector tests (2). These tools measure EGK and other physiological measures. However, EI teaches how to mask emotional effects, which also hides physiological effects.
Training for EI Tactics Has Five Primary Components
1. Managing Self-Perception
2. Managing Self-Expression
3. Advanced Interpersonal Skills
4. Decision Making
5. Stress Management
Each of these five components includes various techniques. These techniques align with previously documented harmful psychological manipulation tactics. Let’s examine how these tactics are rebranded to make them more acceptable.
Rebranding Deceptive Manipulation Tactics
We’ll go over the psychological description of the skill and its new, rebranded name. We won’t outline the specific techniques used to enhance them for obvious reasons.
1. Managing Self-perception
The first tactic is learning to project confidence and dominate. This tactic is used when the facts don’t support your position. It requires the ability to ignore the truth, mute empathy, and avoid any social ramifications. In EI, this is referred to as Bolstering Self-Confidence.
This tactic requires one to compartmentalize feelings and ignore individual and social concerns. This one becomes Prioritizing Shareholder Value in EI. A fundamental corporate goal is to value profit above individual or social concerns. This tactic becomes Prioritizing Bottom-Line Results in EI.
2. Managing Self-Expression
The core skill set of EI involves learning to ignore your emotions; it is re-labeled as Controlling Outward Emotional Affect in EI.
It teaches how to disengage from emotions. That way, you don’t feel guilty for your lack of empathy and can manipulate with a clear conscience. The new name for this is Tactics to Increase Assertiveness and Independence in EI.
3. Advanced Interpersonal skills
Another core skill set is monitoring and masking verbal and nonverbal communication. In EI, this tactic is known as Controlling Outward Emotional Affect.
Con artists and card sharks enhance their observational skills to recognize the non-verbal cues of others. This way, they can identify hot buttons, fears, tells, and the concerns of others. They use this information to gain the upper hand and decide the mark. This vital skill set becomes Learning to Observe and Identify the Emotional State and Needs Of Others in EI. A common grifter technique is manipulating by bartering or using collateral. This tactic becomes Cultivating Effective Work Relationships in EI.
4. Decision Making
These tactics commonly use coercion and deception to manipulate others. Deceptive manipulation tactics become Effective Problem-Solving Tactics EI. They discount and reject empathy for others and the environment. Its new name is Impulse Control in EI.
5. Stress Management
Disengaging from the personal and social impacts and consequences of your actions is a key requirement. This becomes Flexibility — Adapting to Change Effectively in EI.
Numbing the conscience is necessary to exploit people and the environment. But ignoring our conscience means we live in a state of cognitive dissonance. They must learn to communicate misleading information to manipulate others without feeling guilty. The tactics to achieve this become Managing Work-Life Balance in EI.
Being able to disengage from your emotions and the impact of your actions is necessary. If you are to deceive without affecting your conscience, you must ignore your moral compass. It becomes Stress Tolerance — successfully coping with stressful situations in EI.
Masking emotional affect changes to Maintaining an Optimistic Outlook. It means keeping a positive perspective in emotional intelligence (EI).
What is essential is to look at the skill set, not the fancy rebranding name. Rebranding unhealthy behaviors and tactics does not make them healthy.
Unintended Consequences of EI Tactics.
When you rationalize deception, you are on a slippery slope. This type of thinking is habitual and even addictive. It gives you an emotional high. When you lie and get away with something, it makes you feel good; it produces joy and euphoria. The more you learn to deceive, the more you will use these tactics, which can lead to other destructive behaviors.
Learning inherently disingenuous tactics will lead to other unhealthy thinking and behaviors. They divert us from positive values. Once learned, they tend to become a part of your learned behavior. These harmful tactics become ingrained in your psychic structure. You will practice them in all social settings, personal and business, without thinking about it. It’s the slippery slope leading to narcissistic and antisocial thinking and actions. It has a detrimental impact on health and well-being, as well as all relationships.
As a result, companies use ethics training to offset the effects of EI training. When you teach people to manipulate others to meet company objectives, they will also use these same skills to lie about other things. For instance, EI training makes sexual predators more skillful at hiding their actions. It helps those who coerce or threaten others to be more proficient at covering their tracks.
How Self-Awareness Development Strategies Differ from EI
Many people think there is a better way. Instead of learning to mask our feelings and manipulate others, we put the same effort into doing something positive. We can practice things that make a positive impact on ourselves and others. Practicing EI tactics makes us less aware of our impact on ourselves, others, and the planet. EI gives a short-term gain at everyone’s expense, so enhancing our awareness is a much better choice.
Self-awareness is the ability to understand the big picture and see ourselves as part of a larger whole. It connects us all through awareness and consciousness. It helps us understand our humanity and the importance of caring for others and the planet. Furthermore, awareness is the gateway to the virtues of the spirit. It gives us empathy and motivation to act from an internal sense of what is right. Some say this is where the concept of Oneness originates.
Awareness helps us see the long-term effects of our choices. Instead of using narcissistic or antisocial tactics to manipulate others, we focus on higher virtues. This approach boosts your self-awareness. You can choose from many healthy strategies to develop self-awareness that suit everyone.
Instead of learning to mask your emotions and conceal the impact of your behavior, you can learn to embrace them. You can also learn to enhance awareness. This helps you see the implications of decisions that affect people and the planet.
By learning to ignore your feelings and mask your Emotional Affect to influence others, you become disingenuous. But if you learn how to express empathy and emotions in a positive way. You learn to accept and work with others with different points of view.
Learning and integrating these tools into your daily routine is easy. They are suitable for you and everyone in your circle of influence. Best of all, these tools are easy to learn and use. You can learn most tools for expanding awareness from articles on this website.
Self-Awareness Development Strategies
1. Japa Meditation. This meditation is the direct link to the fourth state of consciousness, called the transcendent. Its more common name is the Transcendental Meditation technique. It is the home of pure awareness and peace. It is characterized by awareness without thought.
2. Moving meditation is an action performed with a heightened level of awareness. These techniques involve a high level of mind-body coordination and have a positive effect on our health and wellness. This progression includes energy collection modalities like Qigong and Tai Chi. It also includes Forest Bathing and grounding techniques, such as Tree Grounding and Sun Gazing.
3. Mindfulness Meditation is an excellent way to cultivate a healthier mindset. Another variation of this walking mindfulness is Forest Bathing.
4. The study of logic and reasoning. Enhancing your critical thinking skills is essential. You need them to analyze data and make informed decisions. We use a set of three related tools.
The first tool is essential critical thinking skills, which summarize the primary use of logic in language. It shows how people misuse arguments to sell us ideas and beliefs. Next is a tool called the Ten Common Logical Fallacies. This module provides practical examples of the most common logical fallacies. The last module is the tools to know the truth, the spiritual axioms.
These self-awareness development strategies are the foundation for a healthy mind. Without them, the other tools are less effective.
5. Comparative Analysis is a systematic way to compare different concepts in paradigms. It is a process of comparative religious study based on the scientific model.
6. The Enneagram is a cognitive science tool that helps us understand the mechanisms of the ego. It unmasks the programming that controls personality and instinct. It is written in plain language, making it accessible to everyone. Yet, it describes the depth of the psyche that satisfies any clinician. This makes the Enneagram a powerful system available to almost everyone.
7. Awareness Expansion tools include a variety of techniques. They relate to tools like the Shamanic Journey, Guided Meditation, and lucid dreaming. It includes third-eye awakening exercises and techniques to improve memory (learning how to learn).
8. Journaling can help you gain insight into your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Journaling is one of the most valuable self-awareness development strategies. It helps you identify patterns that may be holding you back.
There are better alternatives to help you manage stress and enhance your overall health and wellness. Increasing our awareness of ourselves enables us to make more informed decisions. We learn to empathize with others and social concerns rather than numbing out our conscience for corporate profit.
In Conclusion
Understanding why emotional intelligence tactics are so popular is key. It helps us understand why companies promote them so heavily in the corporate world. These deceptive manipulation tactics remain unchanged. They are still dishonest and harmful psychological methods.
Instead of learning to control or manipulate others, we can choose a better path. Self-awareness development strategies are positive tools. They help us understand ourselves and feel more connected to others. They promote healthy choices that are kind and thoughtful.
Being truly aware of yourself and others is a much healthier and more honest way to grow as a person.
References
All references are from Wikipedia:
(1) Emotional Affect.
(2) Lie Detector Test.
(3) Intelligence Quotient (IQ).
(4) William Stern.
(5) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
(6) Psychopathology.