Promoting Emotional Intelligence in Organizations

Rating:
Summary: Keys to cultivating emotional intelligence
Review: As president of a consulting and training firm which works with organizations to help them adopt new management methods, I found Promoting EI in Organizations to be a truly exceptional book. It was well structured; but not dry. The clear organization was backed by case studies and examples, almost all of which were extremely practical and relevant. (Some of the case studies near the beginning of the book were more motivational.)

The recognition that true change in managerial skill requires in depth experiential training and ongoing support underlies the ideas in the book. The challenge of convincing an organization to commit to a particular method and to provide resources for this kind of development is great. This book provides methods and materials which will assist in that process through its review of best practices.

The need for review and continuous improvement is sharp. I appreciate the author's point that we must show that the training is working for the business, or modify it, or drop it. The book's 22-step process for this was excellent. It would have been valuable to include more on methods of cyclical review and feedback to produce improvement.

For anyone who is serious enough about managerial "soft" skills to want to provide training in them, and then measure results with hard dollars and business return on investment, this book is an excellent resource.

Sid Kemp, President
Quality Technology & Instruction, L.L.C.

Rating:
Summary: A book to give to your manager!
Review: Finally! A book that adresses an important and overlooked area for improving management skills and developing leaders. The book emphasizes and explains the necessary balance between professional work, human behavior and the emotional components of our lives that add color (and sometimes conflict) to our lives. Promoting Emotional Intelligence in Organizations suggests a range of soft-skill tools that professionals of many ilks and industries can use for the benefits of their organization. I read the book in preparation for attending the Council of Independent Colleges institute for chief academic officers (Cary Cherniss is an invited CIC conference speaker). This will be a revolutionary and welcome concept on many campuses.

Rating:
Summary: A book to give to your manager!
Review: Finally! A book that adresses an important and overlooked area for improving management skills and developing leaders. The book emphasizes and explains the necessary balance between professional work, human behavior and the emotional components of our lives that add color (and sometimes conflict) to our lives. Promoting Emotional Intelligence in Organizations suggests a range of soft-skill tools that professionals of many ilks and industries can use for the benefits of their organization. I read the book in preparation for attending the Council of Independent Colleges institute for chief academic officers (Cary Cherniss is an invited CIC conference speaker). This will be a revolutionary and welcome concept on many campuses.

Rating:
Summary: A guide for setting up a training program
Review: I bought the book because of its title, which also explains why I only gave it 3 stars. This doesn't mean the book doesn't have a good content, quite on the contrary, I agree with most of the material that is written in this book and I can only dream that my customers will apply all that's written here. But for me this is a book about TRAINING emotional intelligence, as opposed to a well integrated way to PROMOTE eq. The first 66 pages of the book will explain what emotional intelligence is (in a manner similar to Goleman's "Working with Emotional Intelligence") and will give an overview of some training programs the authors have looked at (few of these programs are "real" imotional intelligence programs). The next 100 pages explain what one should do to implement a succesful training program (this part is valid for ANY training program and only little of the information is specific to emotional intelligence). In stead of reading that second part, I recommend the "ASTD Handbook of training design and delivery". Conclusion: given what I previously read, this book didn't add anything new. Of course, depending on your backgrond, this might be different for you. But still, if you are really serious about training emotional intelligence, I'd buy at least 3 other books as well, given that you'll get more in depth information that way. And what if you want to PROMOTE eq at work? Sorry, I guess that that book still needs to be written. Patrick E.C. Merlevede, M.Sc. -- co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"