Search Inside Yourself summary

What does intelligence mean to you? A high IQ? Brilliant linguistic skills? What about musical abilities?

Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist at Harvard, was the first to propose a theory of multiple intelligences. He argued that a child who lacked skills in math, but showed talent in languages or the arts, for example, should still be considered intelligent.

To illustrate his argument, Gardner came up with a list of different types of intelligence, which includes among other items intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. Having intrapersonal intelligence means being aware of your own inner feelings, values and goals. Interpersonal intelligence, on the other hand, involves awareness of the feelings, emotions and motivations of others.

Intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence come together to form emotional intelligence, which is the ability to understand the feelings and emotions of yourself and others and the ability to use that knowledge to guide your actions and thoughts.

The author of the book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, grouped emotional intelligence into five categories:

• Self-awareness is your knowledge about your internal state and about your preferences, resources and intuition.
• Self-regulation is the ability to control your impulses, resources and state of mind.
• Motivation is the emotional ability to steer yourself toward your goals.
• Empathy is your awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns.
• And the final category is social skills: your ability to influence others.

So what are the benefits of emotional intelligence?

Well, let’s take a look at Bill Duane, an engineering manager, and how he used emotional-intelligence training to improve his life.

Through emotional-intelligence training, Duane realized that he needed more time for himself and reduced his workdays to four a week. With one less day of work, he found the time to focus more on his well-being, and became motivated to accomplish more while doing less. He became a better listener, learned how to regulate his temper and to understand situations from different perspectives. As a result, Duane became a more effective manager, not only improving his life, but also the lives of those who worked for him.

So now you know what emotional intelligence is. Let’s press on to see exactly how useful it can be in your day-to-day life.