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Summary: A book all employees should read
Review: This book covers aspects of personalities in the workplace that can poison moral. It touches on things that seem like common sense and common courtesy but way too many people forget. The book, like most of the business and management books out there, would be better served in a Cliffs Notes version. Most of what is usefull would fit in two chapters. But what is usefull in the book can have an impact on every level of any business where one person interacts with another. The bottom line. Be mature, professional, and treat others with respect. Duh !
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Summary: Not only for business managers and CEOs
Review: You don't need to be a business manager or a CEO to find inspiration in this book. It can help you deal with just about anyone around you. Your parents, your spouse, your kids, your colleagues and your boss. It is not about power, it's about inner strength, it is about learning to be (or brushing up on being ) a decent human being. It will help you conceptualize and visualize (through short narratives) some of your own intutitions about dealing with others. When you come to understand why you are doing something, you can then do it a lot better. I teach, I train, I manage (not in a business or for profit envrironment thought); Goleman's book as become a tool of my trade.
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Summary: "The Emotional Competence Framework"
Review: "More and more companies are seeing that encouraging emotional intelligence skills is a vital component of any organization's management philosophy. 'You don't compete with products alone anymore, but how well you use your people,' a manager at Telia, the Swedish telecommunications company, put it to me. And Linda Keegan, vice president for executive development at Citibank, told me, 'Emotional intelligence is the underlying premise for all management training'...A 1997 survey of benchmark practices among major corporations, done by the American Society for Training and Development, found that four out of five companies are trying to promote emotional intelligence in their employees through training and development, when evaluating performance, and in hiring...If so, why write this book? Because many or most organizations' efforts to encourage emotional intelligence have been poor, wasting vast amounts of time, energy, and money...My mission in writing this book is to act as a guide to the scientific case for working with emotional intelligence-as individuals, in groups, as organizations. At every step I have sought to validate the science with the testimony of people in jobs and organizations of all kinds, and their voices will be heard all along the way" (pp.7-13).In this context, Daniel Goleman firstly defines emotional competence as a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work, and emotional intelligence as a potential for learning the practical skills that are based on its elements. Thus, throughout this invaluable book, he discusses the relationship between the five dimensions of emotional intelligence and the twenty-five emotional competencies as listed below: A. Personal Competence- These competencies determine how we manage ourselves. I- Self-Awareness- Knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions. 1. Emotional awareness: Recognizing one's emotions and their effects. 2. Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one's strengths and limits. 3. Self-confidence: A strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities. II- Self-Regulation- Managing one's internal states, impulses, and resources. 4. Self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check. 5. Trustworthiness: Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity. 6. Conscientiousness: Taking responsibility for personal performance. 7. Adaptability: Flexibility in handling change. 8. Innovation: Being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches, and new information. III- Motivation- Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals. 9. Achievement drive: Striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence. 10. Commitment: Aligning with the goals of the group or organization. 11. Initiative: Readiness to act on opportunities. 12. Optimism: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks. B- Social Competence- These competencies determine how we handle relationships. IV- Empathy- Awareness of others' feelings, needs, and concerns. 13. Understanding others: Sensing others' feelings, and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns. 14. Developing others: Sensing others' development needs and bolstering their abilities. 15. Service orientation: Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers' needs. 16. Leveraging diversity: Cultivating opportunities through different kinds of people. 17. Political awareness: Reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships. V- Social Skills- Adeptness of inducing desirable responses in others. 18. Influence: Wielding effective tactics for persuasion. 19. Communication: Listening openly and sending convincing messages. 20. Conflict management: Negotiating and resolving disagreements. 21. Leadership: Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups. 22. Change catalyst: Initiating or managing change. 23. Building bonds: Nurturing instrumental relationships. 24. Collaboration and cooperation: Working with others toward shared goals. 25. Team capabilities: Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals. Daniel Goleman writes that "this list offers a way to inventory our strengths and to pinpoint competencies we may want to bolster. Part 2 and 3 of the book give more detail and insight into each of the competencies, showing how they look when displayed in full power-or when they are lacking. Readers may want to turn directly to the competencies most relevant to their interests; the chapters describing them do build on one another to an extent (as do the competencies they describe), but they need not be read in a fixed order." Strongly recommended.
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Summary: It will validate your theories about successful people.
Review: The content of the book gets 5 stars; the delivery gets 3 stars averaging out to a 4 star rating. The content is quite extraordinary. He makes a case for attributes like good communication skills, good interpersonal skills, ability to work well with others, common sense, and self=motivation in the work place. What we all knew intuitively is now confirmed in his writing and gives the reader a sense of validation. Every manager who reads this will now have the dilemma of choosing 5 Joe Schmoe's with above average emotional intelligence working together producing a good group IQ rather than 5 Albert Einsteins working independently for their company. That being said, the delivery could have been a little better. I am not in the industrial psychology field (I am in health care) and I felt I was sorting through research findings/notes at times, something I don't care to do in my easy chair at night. The chapter outline/construction of the book could have been better organized also seeming somewhat hodgepodge rather than sequential. All in all though, the content makes up for any deficiencies in delivery. Go out and buy it.
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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: OH, Now we get it!!
Review: After struggeling for years to uncover those traits that push and hold organizational "stars" in their firmament Daniel Goleman has prepared a down to earth navagational chart for those of us who always knew there had to be a better way to understand the tools to shape behavior. This is not a "Book for Dummies" and yet it is filled with practical real life experience and research to support his thesis that developed Emotional Competencies is what all organizations require to succeed. Written with Emotional Intelligence as well, this is an easy read except for the time you will spend highlighting and exclaiming OH, Now I get it!!
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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: An Extraordinary and Essential Book
Review: Anyone who works with other people -- all of us -- needs to understand that our professional lives can be better than they are. And, all of us need to understand that mere skill or academic achievement never have translated into professional success, and never will. This book, an extremely thoughtful analysis, cogently describes the missing link. We always knew that IQ was never enough. The missing link, the ability to form alliances that deepen into friendships, the ability to be creative and to lead co-workers to do their utmost, is only part of the totality of what constitutes emotional intelligence. Read the book, your career and your life will be better for it.
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Summary: Good EQ Evidence Book & Primer
Review: This book presents much interesting (but not startlingly original) material supporting the importance of soft skills in modern business. Evidence from hundreds of anecdotes and studies in business span sections and chapters addressing: * Beyond expertise- new measures, competencies of stars (e.g. self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation), and the hard case for soft skills. * Self mastery- the inner rudder, self-control, and what moves us. * People skills- social radar, the arts of influence, and collaboration, teams and the group IQ. * A new model of learning- the billion dollar mistake, and best practices. * The emotionally intelligent organisation- taking the organisational pulse, the heart of performance, and some final thoughts. Strengths include the attractive engaging writing style, the attempt at use of global examples (not just US), the occasional foray into neuroscience's/ psychology; the many business examples across sectors and organisation size/life-cycle; the fully supported assertions and reference materials; and the great summary tables on pages 26-27 (the framework) and 251-253 (training guidelines). Weaknesses include: a lack of use of appropriate illustrations and figures; occasional anecdotes could have usefully been shorter (or as a sidebar); and perhaps the need for a fuller theoretical/scientific framework to structure the book. I felt the section addressing cybernetic organisations should have come much sooner, with more depth (Stafford Beer has much to offer here)- which could itself strengthen the EQ framework, which arguably lacks both direction and performance benchmarking. Further gaps included lack of mention of emotional dissonance when talking about managing emotions in staff, and lack of mention of artificial neural networks when discussing intuition and (non-linear) pattern matching (including emotions or states). Overall, an interesting book that read somewhat like someone defending a lucrative territory of consulting and training programmes, from those joining the bandwagon later. There's definitely much substance, but not presented in a way immediately useful for typical consultants, business executives or researchers. Use with a good industrial psychology change text, to add value to your organisation or clients.
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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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