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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Working with Emotional Intelligence summary
Daniel Goleman
The Crucial Role of EQ in the Workplace
18 mins
Brief summary
Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman highlights the crucial role of emotional intelligence in achieving workplace success. It provides insights and strategies for enhancing self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal skills to improve collaboration and leadership.
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Working with Emotional Intelligence
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Your employer already knows about this core performance predictor
In today's rapidly evolving workplace, being smart isn’t enough. The most successful people are those who can balance brainpower with emotional insight, understanding themselves and those around them. This mix of cognitive and emotional skills, known as emotional intelligence – or EQ, has become the unifying trait that employers quietly but decisively look for when hiring and promoting.
For more than a century, organizations have sought ways to measure and improve worker performance. In the early 20th century, Frederick Taylor's "Taylorism" focused on measuring workers' physical efficiency, breaking down every movement to its most productive form. Soon after, IQ testing emerged, attempting to quantify intelligence and predict success.
By the 1960s, personality was seen as another key to professional excellence, with assessments like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator gaining traction in workplaces. But by the 1970s, psychologist David McClelland proposed a new focus: competencies, a collection of traits or habits that marks someone out for success. He argued that competencies in emotional intelligence were the most crucial predictors of success across various roles and industries.
Emotional intelligence can elevate a person's ability to thrive in their career, often in ways that pure intellectual or technical abilities cannot. Consider two equally brilliant math students: one is self-centered and arrogant, while the other has a higher level of emotional intelligence. The latter, though slightly less brilliant, ends up with better job offers and rises to leadership quickly, because of their ability to connect, collaborate, and lead. Emotional intelligence provides a critical foundation, even for cognitively gifted people.
While some may have reached success without strong emotional intelligence, today’s competitive, interconnected work environment rewards those who can combine emotional awareness with cognitive skill. Teams that work well together give companies a vital edge, and emotional intelligence is the glue that holds these teams together.
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What is Working with Emotional Intelligence about?
Working with Emotional Intelligence (1999) explores how emotional intelligence (EQ) plays a key part in professional success, surpassing cognitive abilities like IQ or technical expertise. It shows that skills like self-awareness, empathy, and social competence are key to career advancement and offers practical insights for anyone looking to enhance their professional life through emotional intelligence.
Who should read Working with Emotional Intelligence?
- Aspiring leaders who want to enhance their promotion chances by cultivating EQ
- Managers brushing up on conflict resolution strategies and interpersonal skills
- HR professionals looking to identify and nurture employees with high EQ levels
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