Women score higher than men on nearly all emotional intelligence competencies, according to research results released by Hay Group division of Korn Ferry International Inc. (NYSE: KFY). The exception was emotional self-control, where no gender differences were observed.

The research found women more effectively employ the emotional and social competencies correlated with effective leadership and management than men.

“Historically in the workplace, there has been a tendency for women to self-evaluate themselves as less competent, while men tend to overrate themselves in their competencies,” said Richard Boyatzis, distinguished university professor, Case Western Reserve University. “Research shows, however, that the reality is often the opposite. If more men acted like women in employing their emotional and social competencies, they would be substantially and distinctly more effective in their work.”

Boyatzis, Daniel Goleman and Hay Group developed the study. Goleman is co-director of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University.

The research found:

• The greatest difference between men and women can be seen in emotional self-awareness, where women are 86% more likely than men to be seen as using the competency consistently (18.4% of women demonstrate the competency consistently compared to 9.9% of men).
• Women are 45% more likely than men to be seen as demonstrating empathy consistently.
• The smallest margin of difference is seen in positive outlook. When it comes to this emotional intelligence competency, women are 9% more likely to exhibit the competency consistently than men.
• Other competencies in which women outperform men are coaching and mentoring, influence, inspirational leadership, conflict management, organizational awareness, adaptability, teamwork and achievement orientation.
• Emotional self-control is the only competency in which men and women showed equal performance.

The research utilized data from 55,000 professionals across 90 countries and all levels of management, collected between 2011 and 2015, using the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory. The ESCI tool measures 12 emotional and social intelligence competencies proven to impact business performance: achievement orientation, adaptability, coaching and mentoring, conflict management, empathy, emotional self-awareness, inspirational leadership, influence, organizational awareness, positive outlook, teamwork and emotional self-control.