EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE INVISIBLE LADDER TO DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP.

Background: Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a measure of a person's level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) which refers to a person's ability to perceive, control, evaluate, and express emotions. Emotional intelligence is one of the best proven predictors of success in leadership which makes it crit ical to assess it in medical undergraduates as who expected to develop these leadership qualities as they advance from preclinical to clinical years. Objective: We aimed to measure and compare the EQ score and the leadership (LS) score of preclinical and clinical students and to find any correlation between the EQ score and the LS score within each class. Material and Methods: Current cross - sectional study was designed for comparison of 12 leadership traits among 83 preclinical (1^st year) and clinical (4^th year) medical undergraduates at CMH Lahore Medical and Dental College on 5 point likert scale. Their EQ was measured quantitatively as well as qualitatively by using free online test by INSPIR3 based on 10 multiple - choice questions. Qualitative questionnaires were measured on likert scale and compared the EQ and the LS score between the two classes. Results: Median LS score was generally higher in first year whereas median EQ score was equal in both classes but there was no statistically significant difference in average LS and average EQ score between both classes. A significantly positive correlation was observed between the LS and the EQ scores within each class. Conclusion: The results indicate that there is no improvement in EQ while advancing from preclinical to clinical years owing to stress on mainly IQ assessments and lack of awareness about significance of EQ. The deterioration of LS highlights lack of EQ development skills. The positive correlation between LS and EQ scores reinforces that students with higher EQ are better leaders and thus reiterates the need to incorporate EQ development programs in the medical training curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]