Emotional intelligence cards for the development of employee potential

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of the development of employee potential. It has become extremely relevant since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic primarily due to its negative impact on the mental health of the population. The subject of the study is to increase the level of emotional intelligence as highly demanded soft skill at the present time through the use of emotional intelligence cards. The latter were developed by the authors in compliance with intellectual property rights. These cards might be used both in the web version and in a form of a printed deck consisting of 5 blocks (facial expressions – 2, basic emotions and their manifestations – 2, landscapes and abstract pictures – 1). The main objective of this article is to describe the cards taking into account the influence of fundamental theoretical provisions in the field of emotional intelligence (D. Goleman, J. Mayer, and P. Salovey). The methodology is based on a sociological survey conducted within an online questionnaire to summarize the outcomes of facial recognition by the respondents. To achieve the goal, focus groups were held to discuss difficulties in choosing emotions and feelings during the questionnaire, additional tools for recognizing emotions, etc. The results of the study explain both the procedure for creating cards and the prospects of using them for staff learning. The authors provide a list of the principles of working with cards of emotional intelligence such as individual interpretation, non-exclusive nature of verbalization, considering a stage of a training event and a level of complexity when selecting the activities, etc. The practical significance of this article is to present a new tool for conducting trainings and other personnel management activities. In addition, the findings might be valuable for expanding scientific knowledge about the perception of emotions.  JEL Classification: I310, M120