PTFL materials

Summary of Introduction Emotional Intelligence ♦ Limiting Patterns

We will cover: 1. What is emotional intelligence? 2. What stops us from being as emotionally intelligent as we can be? 3. How can we increase our emotional intelligence? There are many aspects to intelligence such as numeric, spatial, verbal etc.; our focus will be on emotional and social intelligence. Daniel Goleman summarized the current research on this topic in three books: ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (1995), ‘Working with Emotional Intelligence’ (1998) and Social Intelligence (2006). (See recommended reading). We can define emotional intelligence (“EQ”) very simply as the ability to manage one’s own and other people’s feelings. One of the relevant findings of Goleman’s quoted research is that EQ is a better predictor of management and leadership success than IQ. For emotional intelligence as well as for other functions coordinated by the brain, talent is connected to genetics but mastery depends on learning opportunities (environment) and practice. To handle our own and other people’s emotions is hardwired. How we do it is learned, essentially during the formative years (0 to 7). A high EQ is not enough to be a good leader; it needs to be translated into specific skills – just as a high verbal IQ isn't enough to be fluent in a language.

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