Working With Emotional Intelligence

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Summary: Looooooooong and repetitious
Review: I read and read and read and read and, well you got the point. I think is too much of the same. It is very strong the first half, but the other half took discipline to finish.

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Summary: Good Book packed with anecdotes of power!
Review: I read this book with trepidation, and noted that while there was nothing VERY new, the superb access that Goleman has with the top business heads of the world has given him an edge that is not easy to imagine being shared by any one else. One note though:how come the other groundbreaking book on the subject: Executive EQ by Robert Cooper and Ayman Sawaf, which is a far richer gathering of techniques not mentioned at all?

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Summary: YOU BETTER BUY "EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE"
Review: I was curious about this "Emotional Intelligence" phenomena surrounding the organizations almost like the new 90's clise. I bought Daniel Goleman "Emotional Intelligence" to learn about his theory and concepts and I must say it was very interesting to understand something we all know: clever people are not always the most succesful. Goleman's theory tells you why and broadens the concept of intelligence, where control of emotions and the way people interact contribute to achieve better results and develop leadership. I was also susprised with his scientific and psicologist approach (every psicologist must read this book). However, for those expecting how-to-become-success magic formulas or practical guidelines to reach high within an organization, as the book is often sold, you may be disappointed (for those, I recommend J.J. Fox "How to become CEO"). I bougth "Working with Emotial Intelligence" and reading it was boring. Goleman repeats its concepts presented in its prior book and tries to apply them to working environment. The result: a very long book, with little additional value if you have read "Emotional Intelligence". The book seems to be a marketing move to sell the same content under a new name. I suggest to buy Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence", which is better presented, more analytical and serious. I believe that Goleman's theory is worth to take a look. If you want to learn about it, do it by buying Emotional Intelligence". I recommend The seven habits of highly effective people.

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Summary: The new bible of personal development, esp. for the hi-IQs
Review: It amazes me to see how many smart people failed in their lives and careers. This is a must-read for anyone whether he is an assembly line worker or a professor. I do believe emotional intelligence should be a mandatory course we are all required to take in colleges. Although there are thousands of books on personal development, few is written so briefly yet so completely, no-nonsense yet so strikingly powerly, right to the fundemantals. For me, it is the light that changes my perception of the reality, and of myself.

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Summary: A Sequel With No New Idea
Review: It looks like the author is trying to spread his gospel of EQ to the business world. His message is, to succeed in business, your organization needs to become an emotionally intelligent organization. It should be full of EQ staff. Or, to put it the other way around, if you want to succeed in an organization, you should be an EQ person. Then he goes at length to tell stories to support his proposition.

Unlike Emotional Intelligence, this sequel is light in contents. The book is loaded with interviews and observations. There is almost no new idea for those who have read EQ. It is admirable that the author can make it so thick (383 pages).

Rating:
Summary: All anecdotes, very little advice
Review: Like many reviewers before me, I bought this book thinking that it will suggest ways one can go about improving one's emotional intelligence. However, what I ended up getting is endless anecdotes.

Goleman spends the entire book, listing anecdotes after anecdotes, explaining "why" emotional intelligence is important, but not "how" to become more emotionally intelligent.

I do not need to know "why" EI is important; I bought the book, I know it is important.

Rating:
Summary: more pablum for workplace freeloaders and diversity trainers
Review: Long live mindless, emotional, public and private bureaucracy!!!More biased, feel-good anti-individual propaganda. Exemplifying one of the many prevalent though intrinsically worthless concepts in the politically correct government mandated and controlled, redistributionist, collectivist workplace and economy of today. Remember "quality circles?"

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Summary: Invaluable Revelations
Review: No commentary of mine on Daniel Goleman's contributions to ourunderstanding of human nature can possibly do full justice to them. Hegained well-deserved praise for his previously published EmotionalIntelligence in which his focus was primarily on education. Only briefly in one chapter of that pioneering work did he suggest that his insights could perhaps have broader implications for any workplace; indeed, for organizational life throughout our entire society. How fortunate that he then began a two-year study to explore those broader implications. The results of his efforts are shared in Working with Emotional Intelligence. It is a stunning achievement.

In the first chapter, Goleman observes: "The rules for work are changing. We're being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will not, who will be let go and who will be retained, who passed over and who promoted." As explained by Goleman, emotional intelligence is not simply "being nice" nor does it mean giving free rein to feelings -- "letting it all hang out." Rather, "it means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals." For many persons, perhaps, the descriptives "emotional" and "intelligent" are mutually exclusive. As does Howard Gardner in Intelligence Reframed, Goleman explains that each of us is blessed with a multiple of intelligences. They must be developed and nourished differently. All are needed. A mature person, therefore, is one who has her or his multiple intelligences (MI) is proper balance, who manages and expresses each in appropriate (hence effective) ways. All of us know highly analytical adults whose emotional development seems to have stopped in the "Terrible Two" phase. We also know other adults who possess exceptional sensitivities but are unable to complete the simplest of calculations.

Goleman organizes his material in five parts: Beyond Expertise, Self-Mastery, People Skills, A New Model of Learning, and The Emotionally Intelligent Organization. Goleman's purpose is to explain the importance of having "the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships." If indeed any organization's "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each day", it stands to reason that every effort should be made to integrate and coordinate the multiple intelligences of those human assets.

For Goleman, the "good news" is that emotional intelligence can be learned. Therefore, at the individual level, elements of emotional intelligence must be identified, assessed, and upgraded. Only then can the "emotionally intelligent organization" be established and sustained. In his final remarks, Goleman observes: "But apart from the emotional intelligence of the organizations we work for, having these capabilities offers each of us a way to survive with our humanity and sanity intact, no matter where we work. And as work changes, these human capacities can help us not just to compete, but also nurture the capacity for pleasure, even joy, in our work."

Even if your organization is unwilling and/or unable to become "emotionally intelligent", this book can be of incalculable value to your efforts to recognize and understand your feelings as well as those of others, to motivate yourself, and to manage your emotions more effectively...especially in your relationships with others, whoever and wherever they may be.

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Summary: 'Life and Death on the Internet' and this book are Must-Read
Review: Once in a great while a truely unique book comes along that expands the mind. Fortunately , I have been lucky twice in the last year. I have had the great fortune to be exposed to two super books, this one and 'Life and Death on the Internet' by Keith A Schroeder. Both books belong in your library. Both open your mind. The true ability of Emotional Intelligence is to know when to do something right. Like buy these two books, read them, and put them to good use.

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Summary: Daniel is caught between the neocortex and the amygdala!
Review: Poor Daniel, reviews to this particular book are between the extremes. On the other hand I believe it is highly beneficial to read what each has said. From my point of view, I believe Daniel has developed more wisdom with this book. As I remember reading through his first book, I got the feeling that he was overwhelmed with the facts in his hands, at the time. His first book was the work of an astonished researcher. With this book however the voice of an assertive authority is much louder. Daniel has rearranged his thoughts in this book, though couldn't help getting rid of his original examples. I felt more comfortable reading through this book as it has a very clear structure. As a professional trainer, I needed no explanations on how to develop the competencies listed. As an author also, I highly empathize with the comments that were against the book's focus or content as I learned from them that one has to be extremely careful about defining the target reader for a specific book. As a reader, however, I felt completely at ease with this book, the way it is.