Introduction
Millions of books around the world of his first Best Seller "Emotional Intelligence" endorse the interest that this controversial topic has aroused. Surely part of the success has been putting together two seemingly contradictory words "Intelligence" and "Emotion."
In his first Book, Daniel Goleman, develops both from a physiological and social point of view the importance of using our emotions positively and guiding them towards the effectiveness of personal work and relationships with other people.
In this second book, which is already announced from its cover as "The long-awaited continuation", Goleman carries out an exhaustive analysis of what he calls emotional competencies, without forgetting his particular crusade in favor of Emotional Intelligence as a key success factor in in contrast to the traditional concept of rational intelligence: "It is paradoxical that IQ is such a poor predictor of success among the group of people intelligent enough to perform well in the most cognitively demanding fields"
The objective of this article is to bring readers closer to the most important concepts collected in this book. At first, I was motivated by a desire to summarize, since the book hides a lot of good ideas behind a rampant collection of anecdotes and, from my point of view, to work with this book as a reference for studies or training courses it is really complex. I hope my eagerness is useful.
From here, the perspective of continuing to write and expand on what has been written in the emotional intelligence literature opens, so this structure of this article can also serve to structure an orderly approach on this subject.
Neurobiology friends will excuse me for not getting into it, the bases that Goleman describes in the first chapters of his first book are explicit enough.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence
“The rules that govern the world of work are changing. Nowadays we are not only judged by how more or less intelligent we can be or by our training or experience, but also by the way we relate to ourselves or to others. "
This is, as we have already said, Goleman's great crusade: that from all possible spheres, emotional intelligence and its competencies begin to be considered as keys to personal and professional success. Here is some more collection of phrases that illustrate their approaches:
- The most convincing and powerful arguments go to the head as well as the heart. And this close orchestration between thought and feeling is possible thanks to what we could qualify as a kind of brain highway, a set of neurons that connect the prefrontal lobes - the brain's executive center, located immediately behind the forehead and which deals with of decision-making - with the deep region of the brain that houses our emotions. Thus, it is certainly paradoxical that "soft" skills are of decisive importance in professional success in the toughest domains. emotional competencies than cognitive abilities. Even in technical and scientific professions, analytical thinking ranks third,after the ability to influence others and the motivation to achieve. When making a decision, “the first step is always very conscious, deliberate and analytical, but we must not neglect the emotional aspect because both are equally important. It is what is called hunch, intuition. The ability to perceive this type of subjective sensations has an evolutionary origin. The brain regions involved in visceral sensations are much older than those of the center of rational thought. Nervous circuits linked to emotional centers (the amygdala) provide us with a somatic response - a visceral sensation - of the decision we must make. An expression classically used to refer to this type of sensitivity that guides us is that of wisdom. (p.80).Our mind is not organized like a computer that can provide us with a neat hard copy of the rational arguments for and against a certain decision, based on all the previous occasions in which we have had to face a similar situation. Instead, the mind does something much more elegant, gauging the emotional leverage that previous experiences have left and giving us a response in the form of a hunch or gut feeling.When we have the right emotional resources, what previously seemed threatening, we can finish approaching it as a challenge and face it with energy and even with enthusiasm. (p. 131)based on all previous occasions when we have had to face a similar situation Instead, the mind does something much more elegant, gauging the emotional leverage that previous experiences have left and giving us a response in the form of a hunch or gut feeling.When we have the right emotional resources, what previously seemed threatening, we can finish approaching it as a challenge and face it with energy and even with enthusiasm. (p. 131)based on all previous occasions when we have had to face a similar situation Instead, the mind does something much more elegant, gauging the emotional leverage that previous experiences have left and giving us a response in the form of a hunch or gut feeling.When we have the right emotional resources, what previously seemed threatening, we can finish approaching it as a challenge and face it with energy and even with enthusiasm. (p. 131)We can end up approaching it as a challenge and face it with energy and even enthusiasm. (p. 131)We can end up approaching it as a challenge and face it with energy and even enthusiasm. (p. 131)
Characteristics and traits of successful people
To illustrate his thesis, the author takes note of several investigations in which the characteristics of what are called "star workers" are collected, as well as the characteristics that employers are currently looking for in workers.
Research over the decades that has tried to track the talents of “star” workers tells us that there are two skills that have become crucial in the 1990s: team building and the ability to adapt to change.
There is an entirely new set of skills that are beginning to emerge as the hallmarks of star workers, including the ability to catalyze change and harness diversity.
We found that there are some competencies that set star workers apart from others. Namely: empathy, self-discipline, initiative. (p. 35)
To adequately deal with emotional situations to a high degree it is necessary to be a good mediator, that is, one must be able to awaken the trust of others and establish an adequate rapport with them, that is, know how to listen, be able to persuade and know how to advise. In the words of this directive: "In order to build the confidence of others you must be self-aware, take the point of view of others and also be able to be fully present." (p.56)
The only cognitive ability that differentiates "star" managers from mediocre ones is the ability to recognize patterns, that is, the ability to extract the necessary information to understand the most relevant trends and forge a "global vision" that allows planning action strategies for the future. (p.58)
The best are always willing, for example, to stay extra time to help their colleagues to finish a project and they do not keep small discoveries that can facilitate the work, but share them openly. They are people who do not compete, but collaborate. (p.62)
The most relevant emotional competencies for success fall into the following three groups:
- Initiative, achievement motivation and adaptability Influence, ability to lead teams and political awareness Empathy, self-confidence and ability to encourage the development of others (p.64)
In such a changing world we find that flexibility, the possibility of adapting to change is more important than experience (p.69).
Only when a person displays a broad bouquet of the full spectrum of emotional competencies is there a chance that he will reach what McClelland called a "tipping point," a condition that enables him to stand out as a "star" worker and perform a role similar to that of the catalysts in certain chemical reactions. (p.63).
What are employers currently looking for from workers?
- Ability to listen and communicate verbally Adaptability and ability to give a creative response to setbacks and obstacles Ability to control oneself, confidence, motivation to work towards certain goals, feeling of wanting to open a path and feeling proud of the achievements achieved Group and interpersonal effectiveness, cooperation, ability to work in teams and ability to negotiate disputes Effectiveness within the organization, predisposition to participate actively and leadership potential.
Characteristics and traits of people who fail
But if these are the competencies of star workers and therefore, the ones that employers value most today, the characteristics and traits of people who fail, according to the conclusions of an investigation carried out with senior executives who had ended up failing., they showed the following common features:
- Rigidity: inability to adapt to change and inability to assimilate or respond appropriately to feedback on the traits that need to change or improve. With little development of the ability to listen and learn Very poor relationships: people who criticize very severely, insensitive or exaggerated demands that end up confusing their subordinates.
The differences between managers who succeed and those who fail usually revolve around two of the main dimensions of emotional competencies that we list below:
- Self-control: Failing bosses cope poorly with pressure and are prone to bad temper and fits of anger. The successful manager does not lose his balance during tense situations, but even in the midst of the crisis they maintain their serenity.Responsibility: the losers react defensively to mistakes and criticism, denying them, covering them up or trying to unload their responsibility on other peopleFidelity: mistakes are linked to excess of ambition, to the desire to move forward at the expense of others. Managers who succeed show a deep interest in the needs of their subordinates Social skills: those who fail show excess arrogance, aggressiveness or arrogance Establishing ties and taking advantage of diversity:managers who fail are unable to create a network of cooperation and profitable relationships (p.68).
The importance of Emotional Intelligence for Managers and Technicians
Hundreds of millions of dollars, euros and currencies of all kinds are spent by managers and directors each year in training. Of course, if there is something that worries, it is the development of leaders in organizations, this perspective does not escape from Emotional Intelligence, just as the development of these competencies does not escape the technicians so important in the era of "bits"
Peter's principle, which states that one is promoted until he reaches his level of incompetence shows how, the fact that a person is promoted for his good technical knowledge does not presuppose that he will be a good boss, since the situation of Managing people is new to him.
This principle explains why the work environment is saturated with bad bosses (p.70).
Stephen Rosen of MIT explains of scientists and technicians: “The smarter they are, the greater their emotional and social incompetence. It is as if the intellectual muscle had been strengthened at the expense of the muscles of personal and social competencies "He calls this phenomenon" Learned Disability "(p.72)
Definitions
Before getting into the concepts dealt with in the book, I agreed to invest some time in knowing how the author understands concepts such as competence, practical intelligence or even emotional competence:
A competence is a personal trait or a set of habits that lead to superior or more effective job performance or, to put it another way, a skill that increases the economic value of the effort that a person makes in the world of work (p. 35)
Practical intelligence: a combination of skill and experience. Thus, apart from IQ, it is our practical skills and the technical capacities that we can master that will determine our daily performance.
Expertise is, to a large extent, a combination of common sense and the specific knowledge and skills necessary to do our job properly. Expertise is acquired through daily learning and allows us to understand the ins and outs of a certain profession, a real knowledge that can only be the result of practice.
An emotional competence is an acquired ability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding job performance.
Our emotional intelligence determines the potential capacity that we will have to learn practical skills based on one of the following compositional elements: self-awareness, motivation, self-control, empathy, and relationship skills.
Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence
Let's see below how the author defines the most important characteristics of Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional intelligence skills are synergistic with cognitive skills, and star workers have both.
Uncontrolled emotions can make the smartest people stupid.
But the fact of having high emotional intelligence does not guarantee that the person has learned the emotional competencies that matter most in the world of work, but only that they have excellent potential to develop them.
The conclusions of a study carried out at Harvard show that people can intuitively experience, in the first thirty seconds of an encounter, the basic impression that they will have at fifteen minutes… or after half a year.
Intuition and visceral sensations are an index of our ability to capture messages from the internal store of emotional memories, our personal heritage of wisdom and good sense (…)
The characteristics of the capabilities of emotional intelligence are:
- Independence. Each person makes a unique contribution to the performance of their work. Interdependence: each individual depends to some extent on others. Hierarchy: the capacities of emotional intelligence are mutually reinforcing. Necessity but not sufficiency… having the capacities does not guarantee that they will end up being developed.Generic… can generally be applied to all jobs, but each profession requires different skills.
Emotional Competencies
The conceptual development of the book follows the definition and explanation of emotional competencies
Personal competence. They determine how we relate to ourselves
- Self-awareness: awareness of our own internal states, resources and intuitions Emotional awareness: recognizing our own emotions and effects Proper self-assessment: knowing our own strengths and weaknesses Self-confidence: security in the assessment we make of ourselves Self-regulation: control of our states, impulses and internal resources Self-control: ability to properly handle conflicting emotions and impulses Reliability: fidelity to the criterion of sincerity and integrity Integrity: taking responsibility for our personal actions Adaptability: flexibility to face changes Innovation: feeling comfortable and open to new ideas, approaches and information Motivation:the emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate the achievement of our objectives. Achievement motivation: striving to improve or satisfy a certain criterion of excellence. Commitment: supporting the objectives of a group or organization. Initiative: readiness to act when the occasion arises. Optimism: persistence in achieving goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
Social competence. They determine the way in which we relate to others
- Empathy: awareness of the feelings, needs and concerns of others Understanding of others: having the ability to capture the feelings and points of view of others and take an active interest in the things that concern them Service orientation: anticipating, recognizing and meeting needs Customers Leveraging Diversity. Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by different types of people Political awareness: the ability to be aware of underlying emotional currents and power relationships in a group Social skills: the ability to induce desirable responses in others Influence: Use effective persuasion tactics Communication: deliver clear messages and compelling Leadership: inspiring and directing groups and individuals Catalyzing change:initiate or direct changes Conflict resolution: ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts Collaboration and cooperation: be able to work with others in the achievement of a common goal Team skills: be able to create group synergy in the achievement of collective goals
Emotional Awareness
The ability to recognize how our emotions affect our actions and the ability to use our values as a guide in the decision-making process.
Emotional awareness: Recognize our emotions and their effects
People gifted with this competence:
- They know what emotions they are feeling and why They understand the links between their feelings, thoughts, words, and actions They know how their feelings influence their performance They have a basic understanding of their values and goals
Richard Boyatzis defines self-awareness as: «the ability to remain attentive, to recognize the indicators and subtle internal signals that allow us to know what we are feeling and to know how to use them as a guide that continuously informs us about the way we are doing things"
Emotional awareness begins by making contact with the flow of feelings that continually accompanies us and recognizing that these emotions color all our perceptions, thoughts and actions and a way that allows us to understand how our feelings affect others as well.
The flow of feelings
The background of our emotional life runs in a similar way to the flow of our thoughts. In the back of our consciousness there is always some state of mind that, although, in general, we are not aware of the subtle states of mind that ebb and flow as we go about our daily routine. But the day to day makes us much more concerned with our flow of thoughts, immersing ourselves in the task we are carrying out without perceiving the feelings that this generates in us. To sensitize ourselves to this underground noise of moods and emotions, it is necessary to make a mental pause, a pause that we rarely allow ourselves. Our feelings always accompany us, but we rarely notice them, on the contrary, we only notice when they have overflowed.
It is as if our emotions have their own agenda, but our hectic lives leave them no space or free time and consequently they are forced to lead an underground existence. All that mental pressure ends up suffocating that inner voice that constitutes the surest compass to properly navigate the ocean of life.
We could call people unable to recognize their own feelings "emotionally illiterate."
In certain people, this emotional deafness constitutes a kind of forgetfulness of the messages that our body sends us in the form, for example, of chronic migraine, low back pain or anxiety attacks.
But self-awareness is a skill that can be cultivated, for example with daily meditation.
Letting ourselves be guided by our internal compass (p. 88)
Self-awareness is a kind of internal barometer that tells us if the activity we are carrying out, or the one we are going to undertake, is really worth it. Feelings provide us with a global image of every situation. And, in the event that there are discrepancies between our values and our feelings, the result will be a deep unease in the form of guilt, shame, doubts, daydreams, restlessness, remorse or the like. And all that background noise acts as an emotional fog that inspires feelings that can end up sabotaging all our efforts.
Research shows that star workers make choices that allow them to work while leaving their self-esteem intact or strengthened, take into account the type of project that interests them most, the type of people with whom it can be most challenging to work, and what personal contribution they can make to maintain effectiveness.
Direct one's life
As the saying goes: "if you do not know where you are going, any path will work", which means that the less aware we are of what we are really passionate about, the more lost we will be. And this drifting can even reach to seriously damage our health. Perhaps this is why people who feel that their work does not allow them to take advantage of their potential, or who feel that their activity is routine and boring, are at greater risk of experiencing heart ailments.
Self-awareness thus provides us with a sure compass to harmonize our decisions with our deepest values.
Self Assessment
Sincere recognition of our strengths and weaknesses, a clear vision of the points that we must strengthen and the ability to learn from experience.
Know our resources, our capabilities and our internal limitations
People gifted with this competence: (p. 94)
- They are aware of their strengths and weaknesses They reflect on and are able to learn from experience They are sensitive to sincere learning from experience, new points of view, continuous training and self-development They have a sense of humor that it helps them to distance themselves from themselves.
Blind spots
| Self awareness | The first necessary step to increase our effectiveness is to identify a need that we must improve even though this awareness may be extremely difficult to achieve. |
| Objectivity chapter Antonio Medrano | Failed executives seem reluctant to acknowledge their own mistakes and disdain people who dare to point them out. Their resistance is a clear example that they cannot do anything to change things. |
| Feedback | One of the most difficult pieces of information to come by in the business world is a constructive and sincere "relearning" of what we are doing, especially our mistakes. We spend much more time criticizing people's mistakes than making them see them openly and sincerely. It seems as if there is a kind of Faustian pact, a conspiracy that leads us to act as if everything is fine, when in fact it is not. Whenever someone behaves like this in a given situation, he expresses the unmistakable signs of the existence of a "blind spot." |
| It would be interesting to carry out a questionnaire with these factors, in which the blind spots are explained and proposed as a self-improvement questionnaire. It can also be attached to the Johari window | Here are some of the most common and costly blind spots, determined from a study by Robert E. Kaplan:
The function of these blind spots is none other than to prevent people from getting to know themselves, since such a thing would force them to admit something, their own mistakes, that they are not willing to acknowledge. This makes you refractory to any learning from experience. |
| It would be nice to start a learning process by identifying blind spots for learning | All these blind spots are learned habits and, consequently, if we are lacking in one way or another, we can always learn to do things better. |
Ways to improve
| Feedback | Star workers deliberately seek feedback and want to know the opinion that others have of them because they know that it is extremely valuable information. Also people who know themselves very well are good workers since their self-awareness allows them to continuously correct their mistakes. (p. 102) |
| Self awareness | Self-awareness is an invaluable instrument for change, especially if our need for change is in line with our own personal goals, our mission, and our core values, including the fact that trying to improve is something positive. |
Self confidence
The courage that derives from the certainty in our capacities, values and objectives
A very clear sense of our worth and capabilities
People gifted with this competence:
- They are self-confident and present They can express important points of view and stand up for what they consider right without support. They are entrepreneurial and capable of making important decisions despite uncertainty and pressure.
Self-confidence is the indispensable condition for any outstanding performance because, in the absence of it, people often lack sufficient conviction to face the difficulties that are presented to us. Confidence in ourselves gives us, in short, enough security to assume the role of leader.
For those who lack self-confidence:
- Each failure confirms their sense of incompetence Feelings of helplessness, ineffectiveness and an overwhelming sense of insecurity manifest They have the fear of appearing utterly inept They easily give up their own opinions and judgments, even good ideas, when these are challenged They show up with chronic indecision, especially low pressure They frighten at the slightest risk They do not know how to communicate useful ideas
Overconfidence can lead to:
- Arrogance (especially if the person has no skills) May be a manifestation of lack of reality
People with adequate self-confidence:
- They are effective Able to take on challenges and master new tasks, despite possible criticisms to the contrary They see themselves as catalysts, promoters and initiators They adequately justify their decisions and actions, being firm before them Gives you enough energy to make decisions They have the courage to express themselves, to say what they really think
Have talent and believe in it
| Self-efficacy | Self-confidence is closely tied to what is called "self-efficacy," the positive judgment of our ability to act. But self-efficacy is not the same as our actual capabilities, but rather what we believe we can do with them. Our capacity alone is not enough to guarantee optimal performance, we must also believe in it in order to get the most out of it. (p. 105 There is a very close relationship between self-awareness and self-confidence. Each of us has an internal map of our own preferences, abilities and deficiencies. |
Self control
Properly manage our emotions and our conflicting impulses
Keep conflicting emotions and impulses under control
People gifted with this competence:
- They adequately govern impulsive feelings and conflicting emotions Remain balanced, positive, and unflappable even in the most critical moments Think clearly and remain focused despite pressures
Self-control is manifested by the absence of emotional outbursts or by being able to relate to an angry person without getting angry.
A surprising discovery, drawn from brain studies of people who are subjected to stressful situations, shows that emotional brain activity undermines some of the functions of the prefrontal lobes, the executive center immediately behind the forehead..
The prefrontal lobes are the seat of working memory, that is, of the ability to pay attention and remember outstanding information, an essential instance for understanding, understanding, planning, decision-making, reasoning and learning.
When the mind remains calm, working memory performance is optimal, but when an emergency occurs, brain functioning changes to a self-defense mode focused on survival, consuming working memory resources and transferring them to other brain locations that support it. keep the senses in a state of hypervigilance.
To the extent that we are concerned with thoughts mobilized by our emotions, the working memory will have much less attentional space
When emotions overflow
| Time management | The situations that stress us seem multiplicative and from the point of view of our body there is no difference between our home and our work. (p. 112) CONCENTRATION
The fact of being inundated with information puts us in a reactive response mode as if we were continually forced to put out small outbreaks of fire. And since each of these messages is a distraction, the function that is most affected is concentration, making it extremely difficult to refocus on a task that has been interrupted. For this reason, the cumulative effect of this deluge of messages ends up generating a situation of chronic distraction. Distractions are one of the main causes of the decline in personal effectiveness. IMPULSIVENESS It is the inability to restrain a response that has already been triggered |
Self-regulation of emotions
| The vision as mitigating the emotional cost of the person when facing an effort | EMOTIONAL EFFORT This concept refers to the internal effort that we have to do well to control our emotions, well to understand the emotions of others.
In order to determine the cost of an emotional effort, we must first know the degree of identification that the person maintains with their work. (p. 120 EXCESS OF EMOTIONAL CONTROL Emotional self-control is not the same as excess control, that is, the extinction of all spontaneous feelings that, obviously, have a physical and mental cost. |
When work is hell
| Management: what feelings and emotions do we inspire in others? | The fact is that among all the relationships we establish in our work environment, the one we maintain with our boss or supervisor has the greatest impact on our physical and emotional health. (p. 125) A bad day at the office is not a problem, but a persistent conflict with a superior is stressful enough to end up sapping our immune resistance. |
The benefits of self-awareness (p. 128)
| Self awareness | The mere fact of being aware of the feelings that bubble within us can have a very positive effect on our health. Self-knowledge plays a fundamental role in managing stress.
DO NOT MANIFEST EMOTIONS: EMOTIONAL IMPLOSION This type of people experience, in any case, the internal collapse typical of such a situation in the form of psychosomatic problems, although they are not affected by emotional abduction. |
In closing, we leave you with the webinar Emotional intelligence to get to know you and improve your interpersonal relationships at the Technological University of Mexico.
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