The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace

Intellect still matters, certainly. You generally need a certain number of IQ points just to get in the game. But Daniel Goleman’s great contribution has been to make clear the astonishing degree to which, once you’re in the game, becoming a star is largely attributable to factors beyond intellect—factors such as maturity, emotional health, and grown up ness. If you will, it comes down to character. In demonstrating this with clarity and convincing data, Goleman has proved beyond a doubt something we may have known deep down in our bones yet which has largely been ignored in American organizational life in recent decades. The essence of his findings can be summed up fairly simply. Emotional intelligence (EI), more than any other asset, more than IQ or technical expertise, is the most important overall success factor in careers. And the higher one’s position in an organization, the more important EI is; EI accounts for 85 to 90 percent of the success of organizational leaders. Anyone who followed the 2000 presidential election will recall the mini-drama surrounding the scheduling of the debates. From all appearances, Al Gore wanted as many debates and as wide an audience as possible; for his part, George W. Bush seemed quite reluctant to step into the fray. Experts asserted that Gore’s sharp mind made him far more suited than Bush to success in debating. Yet in the end, Bush gained more from the debates than did Gore. Why? Because he displayed more emotional intelligence.