The Emotionally Intelligent Manager : How to Develop and Use the Four Key Emotional Skills of Leadership

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Summary: For a better reading of your world, read this book!
Review: Amidst the sea of me-too's, look-alikes and makeovers, the Emotionally Intelligent Manager stands out for its solid academic base and avoidance of outrageous claims. As a clinical psychologist, I use the ability-based approach on a daily basis and have yet to find a client that does benefit from exposure to the model.

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Summary: Must-Read on EI
Review: Caruso and Salovey do a tremendous job illustrating how emotions can be used intelligently to achieve business outcomes. The authors share their insights of how to improve emotional intelligence skills in an easy to understand logical flow. This book is a must for those professionals seeking a realistic and scientific approach to the field of EI

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Summary: A Practical Approach to EI in the Workplace!
Review: For the last six years I have been looking for a practical, and credible approach in using the concept of Emotional Intelligence in my professional development work. I explored many theorists until I realized that the ones who were predominantly speaking about EI as an intelligence were Mayer, Salovey and Caruso.

I was very excited to read this book and when I saw the model of the Emotional Blueprint I knew that not only was there a good possibility of measuring EI but there was now a helpful process approach available for developing in self and others the needed skills for integrating EI effectively in personal as well as professional relationships.

I feel this book explores in a meaningful and practical way, as a manager, how to identify emotions effectively, use emotions in a work-setting, understand the progression of emotions, and effectively manage emotions. The work on mood generation and its impication for work tasks and decision-making is but one example of the wealth of valuable information available in this text.
This book blends solid research with practical application.

Although there are many books in my professional library,there is just one book that I refer to as my anchor in understanding the complexity of emotions in the workplace and that is The Emotionally Intelligent Manager.

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Summary: Practical, Insightful, And Worth Scrutiny
Review: I have been in leadership development with a Fortune 50 firm for several years. I found the book to be one of the best resources for leader development in this arena. EI is not the "silver bullet" contingency for all of leadership effectiveness (and the authors don't claim this); I believe that integrity and credibility are the closest things we have to a contingency within the leadership construct. That being said, when EI is low it can be detrimental in certain situations. EI is not the Holy Grail that Goleman initially proposed, but it could very well be a significant component of overall leadership effectiveness. My experience is that leaders are rarely given the luxury of leading only in situations in which they naturally excel - so there is strong evidence that a leader needs to develop in all areas to consistently succeed. Therefore I highly recommend this book as an integral part of an overall development strategy. Additionally, my experience is books that generate some polarized and controversial opinions (like this one) are definitely worth the read! Rock on David and Peter!

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Summary: Good Science, Very Useful
Review: I was surprised that the book was so well written and also so very useful and practical. There was a good overview of emotional intelligence, and then, the book tells you why each of the four abilities are important, how to enhance them, and finally, apply them. Good case studies and stories. Some fun exercises and surveys, too. Plus, they cite some research but do not get bogged down with it, and refer people to footnotes and references. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Emotional Intelligence and business leaders
Review: I work closely with business leaders and know that leaders often confront situations with high emotional content such as managing change, holding performance discussions, dealing with conflict, and making cost cutting decisions. By using the emotional intelligence (EI) model developed by Peter and Jack Mayer and described in this book I have helped leaders improve the way they lead others.

For example, consider managing performance discussions, which is a struggle for most organizations. When a manager holds a performance discussion how does he feel and how does the employee feel? Certainly all leaders recognize that feelings are present and that they matter. The way I help a leader to address performance discussions is by asking him: how does he want to feel and how does he want the employee to feel? Now of course this depends on the quality of the employee's performance. If the manager feels the employee is doing a poor job and is in danger of being fired than the appropriate feeling is "fear". However, if the manager is interested in retaining the employee than the manager also wants the employee to feel somewhat hopeful and supported at the same time. Once you consider how you and the employee are feeling (identify emotion) and how you want both of you to feel (use emotion) then you go to understand emotion to decide what you might do to create the feelings you want. Next comes managing emotion. Managing emotion is about thinking through how you are feeling, how you want to feel, what you might do to change, and finally, what are you willing and able to do.

When I worked at Harvard Business School in the Executive Program for Management Development I learned that great leaders use practical models to frame how they lead. In my professional experience, the Mayer Salovey model of EI is incredibly powerful for helping leaders be more effective. While David and Peter's book is not perfect, it makes no false promises and clearly is the best book written about EI.


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Summary: Finally, practical advice based on science!
Review: In my search for a book on emotional intelligence to use for my class on Psychology of Adjustment, I needed something that was based on hard science, had a clear concept of EI, was fun to read, AND included practical advice for how to improve EI. So many other EI books did not have all of these qualities, but this one does. I highly recommend this book to anyone who not only wants to learn about EI, but also wants to USE it.

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Summary: Finally, an EI book I can confidently recommend to clients!
Review: Since founding EI Coaching, Australia, in 2000, I have continuously pestered David Caruso for materials geared towards enhancing the four core skill areas of EI. However, as with their pioneering model of EI and its subsequent measurement tools, the MEIS and MSCEIT, David, Peter and colleagues have not rushed to the market with an inferior product, and so I have had to wait for a definitive text on their ability model. Well the wait has definitely been worth it, with the release of "The Emotionally Intelligent Manager" last year.

In this excellent book, the authors not only provide a thoroughly comprehensive description of the four-branch EI concept and its development, but more importantly, their "Emotional Blueprint" outlines a meaningful and extremely practical framework for applying these skills to the work that managers and leaders do. Moreover, Caruso and Salovey equip the reader with a variety of techniques for enhancing the EI skill set, and draw from established and contemporary theories of emotion (such as Ekman's considerable body of research on the facial representation of emotion), unlike other more spurious tomes on the subject.

Their techniques for the development of EI abilities provide an excellent, well-grounded, hands-on and interactive approach, which prove invaluable in my coaching and leadership development work. Consequently, this is the only publication specific to EI that I will recommend to my clients, and so far their feedback has been nothing short of outstanding. As a consultant working in the real world, this is the most resounding endorsement of all - feedback from happy clients.

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Summary: Meticulous and unquestionably grounded in science
Review: The authors have attained an excellent balance between theory and practical application. The research behind the concept is methodical without being overbearing, and the cases brought under discussion are a faultless frame for "the blueprint". As a doctoral student of Organization Behavior, I am thoroughly impressed with the breadth of the literature review; as a faculty, I am completey reassured by the logic and the system of the presentation, and as an advisor, I find the step-by-step guidance tools extended by the authors both simple and compelling. This is one of the most important works I have read in a while - it is definitely a candidate for a required literature list in graduate schools.

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Summary: Good leaders are tough nuts
Review: The reviewers raving about this book are misguided or they don't know what's going on in the real world. I'm a CEO and have over 5,000 employees. I'm tough as nails but have a moral compass that works. That is the most important thing....as well as a strong business sense to do what's right, treat everyone fairly, set high goals, demand a lot, pay well. I doubt it if Caruso or Salovey ever held a job or if they studied real leaders (seems like they may have done the latter but conveniently selected cases that makes their model seem to work). If you want to know what leaders do buy books written by real leaders. If you want to know what the research says then read real research based on leaders. This book is neither.