Supporting the 'Tall Poppy': Does role-specific emotional intelligence mitigate the demands of being 'high-achiever' on work-motivation, -wellbeing an

Selection of candidates for healthcare professional undergraduate courses, e.g., physician/surgeon ('medic'), veterinary surgeon ('vet'), has tended to target high-achiever, academically gifted individuals, resulting in professional working populations with skewed proportions of high-achievers. There is disagreement about the effects of being high-achiever/academically gifted on wellbeing, with some studies demonstrating benefits, and others detrimental aspects (e.g., poor mental-health, emotional instability). Maladaptive perfectionism is a disposition associated with high-achievers, and the consequent poor mental health is problematic in many healthcare professionals. Years at university spent in a 'melting pot' of highly similar colleagues cultivates perfectionist behaviours, which persist in working professionals.

The healthcare professions exhibit elevated levels of indicators of poor wellbeing, notably higher suicide levels vs. population averages and low retention (medics and vets are longstanding residents on UK shortage occupation list). Reduced wellbeing on entering the working environment is common, however, in some professions does not improve with time, e.g., increasing age has no effect on depression in vets, which remains higher than the general population, and no age decline is detected in the incidence of suicidal thoughts (5.5 times higher vs. general population). Thus, mental health and wellbeing studies considering working professionals are imperative, rather than the prevalent tendency to study students.

Within the job-demands job-resources framework ('JD-R'), personality traits have been considered as 'personal demands-PDs' and as 'personal resources-PRs'. There is reasonable empirical evidence that PRs support the positive pathways, moderating job demands, to allow motivation and positive downstream outcomes. However, there is less investigation into PDs and their relationship with work motivation or strain and the subsequent outcomes. Research focus concerning the interaction of PRs and PDs and that considering aspects of 'high-achiever' as a PD within the JD-R framework is lacking.

Emotional intelligence ('EI') is a potential PR, has been shown to have association with positive leadership behaviour (essential in professional healthcare roles), and to predict work engagement ('work wellbeing') in vets in one study. EI (non-specific) is listed as a key skill and prerequisite to many essential non-technical competences for healthcare-professionals in most educational frameworks, (e.g., communication, empathy), despite the paucity of research to support these recommendations. However, EI is not comprehensively positive, with globally high-EI individuals prone to negatively manipulate others to benefit themselves. All-encompassing high EI is neither necessary, nor beneficial, suggesting that there are optimal levels of EI and there may be role-specific EI profiles which allow professionals to flourish at work.

This study focuses on intrapersonal factors and non-technical competencies as antecedents of wellbeing at work in high-achieving professionals, and a pathway whereby wellbeing and work motivation might be enhanced to achieve downstream improvements in performance, including reducing employee turnover intention (retention). The work employs quantitative methods, incorporating a longitudinal survey design and intervention to understand the directionality of the relationships between the various factors.

The antecedents of wellbeing at work in healthcare-professionals, and particularly the veterinary profession, remain understudied. Research has tended to focus on the pathology of stress and burn-out, rather than professional non-technical competences which might improve wellbeing and motivation at work in healthcare-professionals. The insight and impact that this research can provide into influences on, and potential improvement interventions for, wellbeing in high-achieving profe