In his first book Emotional Intelligence, Goleman defined emotional intelligence and made a strong case for its importance. His focus in that book was on children and their education. Working with Emotional Intelligence focuses on adults in the workplace most of whom have not had the kind of training proposed in Goleman's first book. The good news is that Goleman maintains that emotional intelligence, unlike IQ, can still be improved in adults. 

Goleman first examines the contributions of IQ, technical expertise, and experience to job performance. To the extent those qualities are threshold requirements (for hire), they do not predict success, especially for more complex or higher management positions. According to Goleman, the distinguishing factor between star performers and others is their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the missing criterion and priority. 

The five basic emotional competencies are: 1) Self-Awareness, 2) Self-Regulation, 3) Motivation, 4) Empathy, and 5) Social Skills. Each of these is the subject of its own chapter in which many sub-competencies are explained. Goleman gifts the reader with many engaging stories to illustrate these skills. Some inspire by pointing out how someone with high emotional intelligence handled a particular situation. Some inspire by pointing out how mistakes can be redressed when the emotional component is taken into account and managed. The cautionary tales of brilliant people who failed because of deficiencies in emotional competencies are equally instructive in their own way. You hear CEOs telling you why they fired or did not promote highly intelligent and experienced people. 

Business people will not be at a loss to recognize what Goleman is talking about. Many of the profiles and examples will hit home. Some think he over promotes "soft" skills at the expense of "hard" skills. Goleman maintains that the data indicates otherwise, an idea that TMI has trumpeted for the last thirty years. He neither dismisses the need for hard skills or for hard decisions. A tale of two managers and how each handled a merger and subsequent downsizing is instructive on this latter point. 

From discussion of the individual, Goleman moves on to discussions of teams, collaboration, and group IQ. In today's complex business environment, technical expertise and experience are not sufficient to make groups of individuals achieve the synergy that characterizes truly successful teams. Again emotional competence is the distinguishing factor. 

In the remaining chapters of the book, Goleman outlines the best way to address emotional competence training and how to diagnose and treat an organization so that it can, itself, become emotionally intelligent. Most companies do not measure the results of training and whether it has had any success. Goleman has taken it upon himself to provide a proper yardstick for evaluating emotional intelligence training programs. He cofounded the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and includes guidelines for the best practice in teaching competencies based on emotional intelligence. 

This book is designed to stimulate awareness among business people. That more research is required to bring more precision and refinement to this area is beside the point. Goleman and his colleagues are pioneers in their application of these concepts to businesses. This book is a good beginning. The good news is that emotional competencies can be improved. The better news is, with books like these, they will be. 

Paul Holden, Senior Consultant  
TMI USA 

Note: If your company is interested in training programs in the subject of Emotional Intelligence, be sure to contact TMI. We have been working with these ideas for over twenty-five years. We haven't called our training programs "Emotional Intelligence," but our training programs cover the five basic emotional competencies. 

Previous "Owl Book Review Grove" pages: 
 

#1	Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect
#2	Bennis, An Invented Life
#3	Morrison, The Second Curve
#4	Foster, How to Get Ideas
#5	Bear, Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter
#6	Hemphill, Taming the Paper Tiger
#7	Rifkin, Time Wars
#8	Pearce, Leading Out Loud
#9	Kao, Jamming
#10	Tannen, The Argument Culture
#11	Nancy, More Letters From a Nut
#12	Anders, Health Against Wealth
#13	Yates, The Critical Path
#14	Langdon, The New Language of Work
#15	Needleman, Time and the Soul

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