Instructions

Scoring high in Emotional Decision Making (5 – 7) signifies an ability to quickly make sound decisions primarily based on feelings and intuition rather than logic. The process is often a subconscious reflection of values, priorities, insights, or other important factors. The higher the score, the easier it is to know and do what feels right…and trust it.  But even with a high score, there is a potential pitfall to your logic and reasoning taking a backseat to your emotions. Because your feelings aren't facts,  you can misread a situation, miss the obvious, and misunderstand what is required. You might also become too sentimental or stubborn about some decisions.

A medium score (3.5 – 4.99) suggests greater inconsistency, contradictions, flip-flopping in your decision-making, or making decisions prematurely. You may face the classic struggle between head and heart. The bigger the decisions, the greater your uncertainty. You're more likely to feel conflicted or send mixed messages about what you want or need if your values and priorities are less clear. This can undermine your self-confidence and the confidence others place in you.

With a low level of Emotional Decision Making (0.0 – 3.49), your emotions (or lack thereof) are typically a hindrance rather than a help. You're more likely to choose things that avoid the experiences you don't want rather than achieve the experience you do want. Alternatively, you may hyper-focus on decisions that seem to make logical sense yet they don't pay off because people don't connect with them.   A frequent outcome is dissatisfying and detrimental choices (for you and others) due to poor judgment, impulsivity, or rigid and robotic thinking. Your decisions may change as often as your mood, making it difficult to trust your judgment.

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Two hallmarks of high Emotional Self-Awareness (5.00 – 7.00) are constant growth and transformation. The higher your EQ in this area, the more in touch you are with your feelings, when they change,  and the effect of those changes on your body, mind, and actions. This leads to greater awareness of the motivations driving those changes. Your capacity to be intentional, effective, and wise increases.

A medium level of Emotional Self-Awareness (3.50 – 4.99) tends to keep you in the passenger seat much of the time without knowing it. Unconscious limiting patterns do the lion's share of the driving. You may feel like things are going in one direction and then, suddenly, you end up someplace unexpected and aren't sure how you got there. A challenge is recognizing what's really going on beneath the surface.

Low Emotional Self-Awareness (0.00 – 3.49) translates into less control over yourself and how things go, or you may tend toward unhealthy attempts at control. The lack of awareness can create huge gaps between your expectations, ability, and outcomes. So, when conflicts and challenges arise, it's difficult to recognize, assess and resolve them. Micromanaging, self-sabotaging, and repeating the same mistakes can be expressions of Emotional Self-Awareness that is underdeveloped or underutilized.

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With high levels of Empathy (5.00 – 7.00) comes a greater capacity for deep, strong, and meaningful connections with people. Be they customers, employees, friends, or family, you are better able to tune into other people's needs and understand how to support them. As a result, people often feel comfortable confiding in and leaning on you. This can be both a strength and a weakness based on other aspects of your emotional intelligence.

With a medium level of Empathy (3.50 – 4.99), it is a struggle to maintain the boundary between helping people with their problems and making their problems your own. Straddling the line between empathy and sympathy can also be a challenge; good intentions may be poorly received.

Insensitivity and apathy are common hallmarks of low Empathy (0.00 – 3.49). Lower levels of empathy reinforce narrow points of view, negative judgments, and bias. It can be a major contributing factor to toxic relationships, workplaces, and home environments. The struggle, however, is that the lower the empathy, the greater the blindness to its effects.

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(The lower this score the better)

Having a high Negative Expressivity score (5.00 – 7.00) signals difficulty controlling so-called negative emotions, such as anger, stress, and frustration. It also means you tend to respond with negativity—even to positive things. You therefore might be viewed as a complainer, pessimist, rage monster, dream killer, or Chicken Little. A consequence is that others, especially relationship partners, start to tune you out or take you less seriously when you share negative experiences.

A mid-range score (3.50 – 4.99) might signal ongoing struggles between expressing negative emotions and internalizing them. Similarly, you can jump between the extremes of being passive and aggressive, rather than assertive. Problems are more likely to fester and worsen.

On the low end of the spectrum, Negative Expressivity (0.00 – 3.49) allows for healthy, appropriate, and effective expression of negative emotions. The higher your EQ overall, the better you're able to identify and communicate the real problem behind the emotion.

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High Positive Expressivity (5.00 – 7.00) supports an effortless ability to show happiness, affection, and appreciation. It's easy for people to have a positive experience when they interact with you. They feel valued, know where they stand with you, or find your enthusiasm contagious. As a result, they get a boost of confidence or inspiration just by being around you.

Medium Positive Expressivity (3.50 – 4.99) indicates some difficulty or reserve in expressing positive emotions. You might withhold them as a reward for only the greatest accomplishments or not realize the importance of encouragement for small wins. Another possible consequence: people have trouble gauging who you like, what you want, or how much you want it.

Low Positive Expressivity (0.00 – 3.49) might reflect discomfort with affection, unwillingness to praise, guardedness, or being inhibited by anxiety or fear. It can create a perceived lack of passion or emotionality that lowers morale, disconnects people, or puts them on edge.

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With a high level of Responsive Distress (5.00 – 7.00), you can recognize and respond quickly when others are in distress. In tense or crisis situations, you can easily step up and play the Good Samaritan, Activist, Advocate, Florence Nightingale, Whistleblower, or Knight in Shining Armor as needed. The struggle with this aspect of EQ can be recognizing the difference between helping, over-helping, and enabling.

Medium levels of Responsive Distress (3.50 – 4.99) may signal difficulty in recognizing when someone is in distress or that you are slow to respond to crises. It may take things reaching a breaking point to get your attention. Mistakes and recovery are more costly than they need to be.

A low level of Responsive Distress (0.00 – 3.49) tends to indicate obliviousness or apathy to the pain, injury, and discomfort of others. On the one hand, you can bulldoze right over people. Yet under certain kinds of pressure, there could be a tendency to freeze or be a bystander who can't or won't act.

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A high level of Responsive Joy (5.00 – 7.00) means you can genuinely share in other people's bliss and excitement. In response, people want to share their good news and perhaps continue creating increasingly meaningful experiences.

A medium level of Responsive Joy (3.50 – 4.99) may mute your responses to other people's joy. This may cause them to lose enthusiasm. At this level, Responsive Joy may also manifest as inappropriate or toxic positivity that invalidates and trivializes other emotions.  As a result, people may edit what they share, or stop sharing good news with you altogether.

Low Responsive Joy (0.00 – 3.49) can prevent you from sharing in other people's happiness, even if you want to. You may come across as a cynic, Debbie Downer, or worrywart who can't enjoy simple pleasures or have a good time. In severe cases, people may deliberately exclude you from the most joyful and meaningful experiences in their lives.

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A high level of Temperance (5.00 – 7.00) means a high level of control over your emotional urges and impulses.  There's a great capacity to demonstrate moderation, patience, consistency, and deliberateness. Balance and peace of mind are strong hallmarks of a high degree of Temperance.

A medium Temperance score (3.50 – 4.99) may signal a tendency to be overly patient and cautious resulting in missed opportunities, an inability to move forward, or simply putting up with too much. Alternatively, you can come across as not being interested or passionate enough about something (or someone) even if that is not the case.

People low in temperance (0.00 – 3.49) can be highly volatile, changeable, reckless, and impatient. A serious challenge can be balancing long-term needs with short-term happiness. You may be short-sighted, take poorly calculated risks, or be penny-wise but pound-foolish,

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