| Title | : | On Emotional Intelligence (HBR's 10 Must Reads) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1633690199 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781633690196 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 166 |
| Publication | : | First published April 14, 2015 |
On Emotional Intelligence (HBR's 10 Must Reads) Reviews
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This compact volume contains 10 articles on EI intended as a primer for those new to the subject matter -- published in 2013, it includes some items that were actually quite old at the time (published in 1996, for example)
1. What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman (1996)
2. Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee (2001)
In the first article, Goleman resents the theme of the book: emotional intelligence is the most important skill for leaders, and while some of these are innate, they can all be learned or improved through coaching and attention. He details the overarching groups of skills from an emotional intelligence perspective successful leaders:
• Self-awareness —knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on others
• Self-regulation —controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods
• Motivation —relishing achievement for its own sake
• Empathy —understanding other people’s emotional makeup
• Social skill —building rapport with others to move them in desired directions
Key to all understanding is taking inventory of one's values, goals, strengths and weaknesses to determine a strategy for change and self-improvement. Learning new habits is difficult -- so it must include honest self-assessment and feedback from others, along with a plan and alternatives to supplant the undesired/existing patterns.
The second article dives into a bit more detail about how a leader serves as a "limbic attractor" -- setting the mood for the entire team in terms of outlook, perception and motivation. Nobody wants to work for a grouchy jerk -- and negativity from the top isn't just bad for team performance, it can infect the entire team or organization and create a toxic environment.
"High levels of emotional intelligence, our research showed, create climates in which information sharing, trust, healthy risk-taking, and learning flourish." (p 24). An upbeat environment "fosters mental efficiency" and results in better decisions, as well as financial performance.
As with the first article -- the way to identify and make changes is through 360-feedback (in all domains of one's life), identify your values and goals ("Who do you want to be?") and devise a plan for closing the gap. The article dives into a bit more neuroscience about how humans, as social animals, have an "open loop" system that means we match moods to those around us. Further, while most temperaments are set by the mid-20s, you can change those habits -- or "fake it til you make it"
"The more we act a certain way—be it happy, depressed, or cranky—the more the behavior becomes ingrained in our brain circuitry, and the more we will continue to feel and act that way." (p 36).
This is why, the authors argue, it is so important to have a "learning agenda" -- something that you can hold yourself to as we literally don't have the brain power to make changes without it. Holding yourself accountable works for so many things -- think about New Year's resolutions or the power of making changes for weight loss or smoking with a buddy or group that holds you accountable. Neuroscience is showing that we can change even those things we thought were indelibly imprinted on our own brains -- if we really want to do so, it requires self-awareness, a plan and support from those around us.
This first pair of articles are the precursors to the very excellent "
Primal Leadership" (first published 2002, revised 2013).
3. Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair by Joel Brockner (2006)
Emotional intelligence is critical to change management -- this article examines the importance of "process fairness" in strengthening performance and reducing risk. This is different from "outcome fairness" -- and is driven by three key factors: 1) how much input do employees feel they have in the decision-making process? Are their needs and input valued? 2) Do employees believe that decisions are implemented fairly and with consistency and with accurate data? Can mistakes be corrected? Are plans shared in advance so that employees can have time to absorb, ask questions and adjust? 3) Finally, how do managers treat employees in this process? Do they share information, listen respectfully and answer questions?
The steps for establishing process fairness start with education and training. Help managers understand the impact of emotions on their organization -- you can't just avoid talking to people about the reasons behind a layoff because you feel guilty about it, you have to step up and share information in a truthful and transparent way. Even when managers do consider input from employees -- that's not enough if they aren't articulating how the input was valued or considered against all other data. The team wants to feel heard and considered.
Employee engagement is an ever increasing priority for companies -- a critical part of that is sharing information and including them in the decision-making process. This engagement drives the performance and directly impacts a company's bottom-line.
4. Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions by Andrew Campbell, Jo Whitehead, and Sydney Finkelstein (2009)
Even good leaders can make bad decisions - and that's often a result of making decisions in a silo without feedback or data. Leaders -- and all people -- make decisions at a deeply unconscious level through pattern recognition and with a process called "emotional tagging." This may prevent us from, say, stepping in front of a bus -- but it can also result in making bad decisions (such as Quaker Oats' acquisition of Snapple).
The authors provide a list of "red flag" situations to help improve the decision-making process through a more systematic analysis of biases, options and information. These include: examination of the range of options; identifying the key decision-makers; choosing the most influential decision-maker as the focus; check for biases, inappropriate-self interest or distorting attachments; check for misleading memories and strong emotional associations; repeat the analysis with the next most influential person and then review the list of red flags you have identified.
5. Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups by Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff (2001)
A team may be largely comprised of emotionally intelligent individuals, but without establishing an emotional intelligence for the team -- it may not function very well. The authors describe models for creating processes within teams to incorporate individual emotions and to create a team-intelligence that connects across functions or departments for greater performance and creativity. This article relies a lot on IDEO -- and I was in those teams in the late 90s, so it would be interesting to see a more up-to-date article on group EI after the first dot-com crash when running around with foam finger darts and standing up and howling at your desk were considered acceptable office behavior.
The primary benefit of creating group norms is to allow the team to identify tension, disharmony and other issues and to resolve those issues via process. One of the examples that was really fun was from IDEO: when someone starts to criticize an idea before it's fully articulated, other team members pelt that person with small stuffed animals. Another advantage of group EI is in creating relationships with other groups -- both inside and outside the organization -- by establishing a liaison or ambassador to keep track of the overall satisfaction and confidence of the relationship and course correct as needed.
6. The Price of Incivility: Lack of Respect Hurts Morale—and the Bottom Line by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson (2013)
Despite 20 years of discussion of emotional intelligence in the workplace, this more recent article warns us that incivility in the workplace is on the rise -- though I might argue it's not just the workplace but everywhere. Unfortunately - incivil behavior garners a negative response and unfortunately, not everyone is self-aware enough to realize that they are being incivil in the first place.
In line with the earlier articles about a leader's role in setting mood and energy -- the authors advise that leaders can be the role model and counteract rudeness at work from the top. One great example of this was a manager who realized that venting about rude people to some of his trusted colleagues was basically creating a model for them to continue that incivility elsewhere. He reined it in and changed his behavior to help improve the environment.
Studies show that there are high costs for incivility -- creativity suffers, quality of work decreases, people limit their effort and even spend less time at work. They are less committed when they feel people are rude to them on their team and often leave the company or take out their frustration on customers.
The authors recommend the same steps as in Goleman's first article: model good behavior, ask for feedback, track your progress (even keeping a journal to track your own civility/incivility and changes you want to pursue). In managing the team -- always hire for civility -- and follow gut instincts, find out more if someone isn't sure about "fit" on the team. Teaching civility can be done through role-play and video recording, and creating group norms about shared expectations (ie "don't look at your iPhone during a panel interview"). Finally - it is important both to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.
7. How Resilience Works by Diane L. Coutu (2002)
Here's another article that was written just after the first dotcom crash and 9/11 -- a lot of people felt the devastating effects of these events. The author talks here about what defines resilient people: they accept what they cannot change, find meaning in terrible times and are able to improvise with whatever is at hand. She provides some great examples -- including the well known Victor Frankl, who survived many years in a concentration camp by telling himself he would give talks after he was freed telling people how it was possible to survive such an experience (and he did!).
"This dynamic of meaning making is, most researchers agree, the way resilient people build bridges from present-day hardships to a fuller, better constructed future. Those bridges make the present
manageable, for lack of a better word, removing the sense that the present is overwhelming." (p 113)
Being in touch with your core values, and operating in accordance to those values -- along with sustaining a level of curiosity about how to make things work -- are critical to resilience.
8. Emotional Agility: How Effective Leaders Manage Their Negative Thoughts and Feelings by Susan David and Christina Congleton (2013)
If you've been exposed to any mindfulness and meditation literature -- you have probably heard the term "monkey mind" or maybe "inner critic." This article -- while not using those terms -- is all about how to identify those unwanted thoughts and avoid getting pulled into the vortex of negative, doubting and non-productive thoughts.
The authors outline steps from "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" (ACT): Recognize your patterns; Label your thoughts and emotions; Accept them; Act on your values. The labelling is as simple as "I'm having a thought that guy intentionally cut me off in traffic" -- and then instead of responding as if that thought is true, reflect on your values: I take pride in being a good, predictable, safe driver instead of flipping out (I'm totally using a non business example here to make a point).
Again - we are offered the advice to identify our most important values -- as an objective basis for choosing responses to situations and thoughts that come into our minds. Taking a pause when you feel an emotion and choosing a response results in greater mastery of oneself and has many benefits in relationships and decision-making.
"It’s impossible to block out difficult thoughts and emotions. Effective leaders are mindful of their inner experiences but not caught in them. They know how to free up their internal resources and commit to actions that align with their values." (p 126).
9. Fear of Feedback by Jay M. Jackman and Myra H. Strober (2003)
This ominous title makes me afraid to read the article! Daniel Goleman & his co-authors described "CEO Disease" -- where business leaders have no idea of their effect on those around them because those people are afraid to provide truthful feedback. Jackman & Strober go a step farther -- they talk about how a fear of feedback generally results in many maladaptive behaviors such as procrastination, self-sabotage, jealousy, denial and brooding (back to the previous article about emotional agility!).
The reasons people avoid feedback include: Fear - people just don't like being criticized; Procrastination - often includes hostility or anger, or feeling of helplessness; Denial and Self-sabotage - often unconscious; Brooding can result in passivity, paralysis and isolation as a person avoids or obsesses on something rather than discussing it openly; Jealousy is maladaptive because of the basis in suspicion, envy, rivalry and possessiveness.
A common theme here is self-awareness -- recognizing your emotions and responses, label them and take steps to make a decision instead of a reaction. Seek support from people who will provide you a friendly ear and encouragement in this self-examination and learn to reframe the feedback.
"The proactive feedback process we recommend consists of four manageable steps: self-assessment, external feedback, absorbing the feedback, and taking action toward change." (p 136)
Take the time to reward yourself for making the changes as an incentive -- "nowhere is it written that the feedback process must be a wholly negative experience."
Freeing yourself from knee-jerk reactive behaviors can have a positive effect on other areas of your life as well!
10. The Young and the Clueless by Kerry A. Bunker, Kathy E. Kram, and Sharon Ting (2002)
Have you ever been part of a team lead by a new, young manager who really didn't "get it"? Maybe this person was nice personally but didn't do a great job at resolving team dynamics issues, connecting with people outside the team or even coaching and caring her direct reports?
For the finale of this reader, a restatement of the critical role of EI and soft leadership skills to the success of a manager. The authors describe the importance of slowing down the ascent of young managers and providing them with opportunities to develop those soft skills in ways that will strengthen them personally and improve their performance and longevity in a company.
While some EI skills are innate -- much of these skills are learned through time and experience, older people have more EI skills than younger people. They advise these steps:
1. Deepen 360-degree feedback
2. Interrupt the ascent
3. Act on your commitment
4. Institutionalize personal development
5. Cultivate informal networks.
The examples used in the article are really excellent -- and show a depth of caring and coaching that most managers probably don't receive. One example, a young manager who rose quickly based on performance, was seeking a promotion to VP but her boss didn't think she was ready. Instead, he offered her a special yearlong cross-functional/departmental assignment that would broaden her skills on promise of promotion and financial reward. She did well in this task and when she did get her promotion -- she had built up a network within the company, developed influential relationships and was perceived as a valuable addition to that level.
See "
Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder" by Chip Conley (2018) for more information on how older workers can help younger people develop those EI skills.
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There is no doubt now that having a well-honed emotional intelligence will make it easy for an individual to succeed, especially during this time when every opportunity to connect is available. This maybe one of the reasons why organizations such as Harvard Business Review continuously devote time, effort and financial resources to help our leaders all around the globe regardless of industry or occupation develop these sets of competencies.
In this book, HBR compiles the best collections of its magazine articles which deal with different aspects of emotional intelligence. Of course, the discussion of this subject will not be complete without citing the works of Daniel Goleman. Hence, the very first article you will read is What Makes a Leader. This article discusses the different components of emotional intelligence, namely, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Other articles are also treasure-trove of wisdom. In the Price of Incivility: Lack of respect hurts morale-and the bottom line Christine Porath and Christine Pearson talks about the negative effect of rude behaviors in different companies. While Diane Coutu deals with resiliency, Andrew Campbell and his other colleagues answer Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions.
I find each article helpful in its own right. There are things that make me think about the things around me. More importantly, the most important lesson I learned in this collection of articles is that being emotionally intelligent requires actual experience and practice. You cannot learn this by just reading this book. You must act on it and it a part of your behaviors. But first you must know what you need to practice. This book will help. -
It was ok. Nothing I didnt already know. Each chapter is a new article ( that likely appeared in the Harvard Review itself at one point). Within each chapter/ article is a one page synopsis of the key points. I could have been satisfied with just those pages. The full articles seemed to be too dry and while only 10 pages long, felt like an agonizing eternity. I hope the "Managing Yourself" book is better as i just got that at the airport on a recent business trip. Fingees crossed!
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The essential collection of articles on the subject of emotional intelligence. Read this if you want to understand the components of emotional intelligence and most importantly, how to practice growing in it! Emotional intelligence for the last 20+ years has had huge explanatory power in identifying and building great leaders of organizations and businesses.
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TL;DR: Don’t be a dick.
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A lot of points in the book looked familiar and I've come to realize I've taken for granted the fact that EI is considered important and is cultivated in modern age tech companies (even if not labeled as EI specifically). Some things were new for me: importance of emotions projected by leaders, sources of motivation as predictor of leadership potential, Ego-defense vs self-awareness balance and importance of resilience. Some pieces were rather funny though and sounded outdated though, like
He made plans with each employee to meet outside of work, where they might be more comfortable revealing their feelings.
Year 2020, WCPGW? -
Will try to apply main ideas into my life and professional career. And even more - will share with my colleagues and company top managers. Going through personal to business, from a human to the group and team… ideally - to unite everyone in a company with the same ideas and knowledge. Highly recommended to those who reached high knowledge and experience level but is still struggling with going beyond
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I purchased this book for the wrong reason and didn't find it as compelling or insightful as I thought I would. I wanted to learn more about accurately identifying/labeling emotions as well as emotional regulation. I should have expected this, but HBR focuses more on the leadership and management skills needed to run a business successfully. This book contains 10 essays about different topics related to emotional intelligence, and I found myself skipping around looking for the highlights or individual topics that would interest me most. I did enjoy "How Resilience Works" and "Emotional Agility". Otherwise, most of the other essays primarily focused on managing a business or team when I really wanted to read about managing one's internal state. I guess that's my mistake for assuming I would get more of the latter.
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The first business book I’ve read that couldn’t be reduced down to a notecard. This is definitely a four-notecard book.
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This book contains multiple essays on emotional intelligence in leadership and business. And let me tell you, it's absolutely invaluable. This is the book you should be reading on how to lead with your mind, soul, heart, and feelings. I really love this book.
The only reason I'm taking one star off (really it's a 4.5/5 rounded down) is because due to the essay-collection nature of the book, there did seem to be some repetition between some of the content between different essays. Just how it goes, didn't take away from it that much though.
Highly recommend this book, one of the better and more insightful leadership books I've read. -
This was a very exciting literature review for me as I began it right when I was promoted into a new position and ended it right when I a trying to find means to request feedback from the new management structure in front of me. The articles focus on maintaining dignity within the workplace through 360 feedback, developing emotional capacity + interpersonal goals as part of an employees abilities.
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کتاب از ۱۰ مقاله که از مجله HBR گلچین شده تشکیل شده و تاثیر Emotional Intelligence رو بر مدیریت (HB مخفف هاروارد بیزینس اسکول هست.) میسنجه و راهکارهایی رو برای بهبود ابعاد مختلف EI ارائه میده.
سه مقاله اول، که به ترتیب درمورد ابعاد EI و تاثیرات اون، تقویت EI و تاثبر رعایت انصاف و مقاله هفتم و هشتم، که راجع به Resilience و ویژگی افراد رزیلینت و Agility احساسی (فهم و آنالیز احساسات) هست رو توصیه میکنم، حتی اگر علاقهای به مدیریت و .. ندارین، مواردی که بحث شده میتونه براتون جالب باشه، مخصوصا تقسیم بندی سیستماتیک و اپروچهای مرحله به مرحلهای که ارائه داده بود رو پسندیدم. -
Great book! Concise, straight to the point, and filled with insights. I took one star off because a few articles weren't as engaging and seemed incomplete in their execution practices, but the vast majority were interesting and helpful. What's also nice is that it covered multiple angles of leadership, whereas most books plow to the end with one thesis. Highly recommend!
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Picked this up in the airport, thought I'd update the latest on EI.
Has applications to "group" emotional intelligence ie teams, developing team chemistry. A Richard Feynmann example of "bricoleur" on page 116-117 in "How Resilience Works." -
The first article is the best. Excellent overall.
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An entirely different perspective on the not-so-popular topic of Emotional Intelligence. Fun and Thughtlful Read.
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Excellent and very powerful tool for a leader.
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Nose chico, no cuenta nada nuevo. Si nunca has leído uno de esto está bien
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I found this an enlightening and important read, and hope to review my notes often.
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It was a fascinating read. It is never enough for a manager to master people's skills. Also, people do sense when they are managed emotionally vs. understood with emotional intelligence.
I found it a powerful read overall. -
Didn’t read every essay, but those I did read were great. Covered how emotional intelligence affects leaders, groups, organizations, and young adults.
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Zack needs to read this.
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Кратко и по сути. Хороший сборник статей, чтоб ознакомиться с темой эмоционального интеллекта.
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There were some articles that I thought droned on, but most were good and gave me things to think about as far as how I manage myself and others.
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Introduction
On Emotional Intelligence is a collection of ten essays originally published in the Harvard Business Review on you guessed it, emotional intelligence. Each of these ten articles have been hand selected to create a collection of impactful readings on building your capacity for emotional intelligence in your professional and personal lives. When it comes right down to it, research has proven time and again the emotional intelligence is a key ingredient of exceptional performance on the job, and the essays within this book are here to help us all strengthen our ability to be more emotionally attuned.
Why You Should Read This Book?
Emotional Intelligence in recent years has proven to be twice as important as other skills for jobs as all levels. Said more bluntly … It’s all about the people stupid. The ten articles within this book will help facilitate improvements to your understanding of emotional intelligence which ultimately will help you in your personal and professional ventures. The following is a quick summary/overview of the ten articles within this book:
1. What Makes a Leader?: job skills are important but emotional intelligence is the whole basket that differentiates a great leader from merely a good one. Focus on the following five skills to better improve your EQ: (a) self-awareness (b) self-regulation (c) motivation (d) empathy (e) social skills.
2. Primal Leadership: one of the biggest hidden drivers of great organizational performance is the overall mood of the leadership team and the impact the negative moods can have on the organization as a whole. When it comes right down to it, emotional intelligence travels through an organization like electricity over telephone wires.
3. Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair: even though many executives and managers know this at its core, fairness is one of the most important things to instill in your organization. Yet so many fail to do so. This essay dives into process fairness and how to instill it deeply within your organization’s DNA.
4. Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions: our human brain is a very brilliant but flawed piece of machinery. When faced with a new situation, it makes assumptions based on prior experiences and judgements, and tries to fit the new situation into patterns it’s seen in the past. These errors in judgement lead to most of the bad decisions made by influential people. And when you throw in the fact that we are emotional at heart, this all spells bad decision making.
5. Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups: if you want to build a highly effective group three conditions need to be created and emphasized: (a) trust among members (b) a sense of group identity and (c) a sense of group efficacy.
6. The Price of Incivility: it’s pretty darn clear that a lack of respect will hurt company morale and ultimately the bottom line. Hire and fire based on people’s ability to be civil with those that they work with.
7. How Resilience Works: if you want to increase your ability to be resilient, focus on the following three characteristics: (a) a staunch acceptance of reality (b) a deep belief that life itself has meaning and (c) an uncanny ability to improvise.
8. Emotional Agility: in order to be a great and effective leader, you have to manage your negative thoughts and feelings.
9. Fear of Feedback: our innate aversion to criticism has led to a pervasive crisis within businesses where no one solicites consistent feedback from their managers, peers and direct reports. This essay works to walk you through ways to overcome this fear.
10. The Young and the Clueless: the higher a manager rises in the ranks, the more important soft leadership skills are to his/her success. Young superstars rarely understand this and thus this essay argues that delayed promotions can help these young stars grow and ultimately set themselves up for more success.
You should read this book if you are interested in learning some simple traits and effective tools to improve your overall emotional intelligence. When it comes right down to it, we can all use some help strengthen our ability to better relate to each other at work and in life.
Final Thoughts
The goal of On Emotional Intelligence is to help people increase their EQ in their day to day lives. Compiled in an easy to digest fashion, the ten essays within this book will help you do just that. It’s a solid read and worth spending some time with especially the 1st essay on “What Makes a Leader.”
Easy to Read: (4.5/5) 90%
Deep Content: (3/5) 60%
Overall Rating: (4/5) 80% -
The book mostly talked about emotional intelligence in leaders. Sometimes I found some of the examples in the book irrelevant to the topics and some topics overly explained Basically you could get a good idea of all that was discussed by only reading the"Idea in Brief" parts.
As discussed in the book, emotional intelligence should be learned through practice rather than pure text so I expected more practical exercises.
Here are some highlights of what I learned from the book:
1-practice of fairness is a performance booster and asking for employees' opinions and active listening help with that. Also, it is important to explain the reason behind important decisions to employees.
2-Emotional intelligence in the teams is important and it is not necessarily the outcome of the emotional intelligence of the member, but rather the outcome of the factors such as trust, sense of identity, the habit of hearing everyone's perspective, and whether they feel more productive if working together.
3-Incivility in company costs so the leader should represent civility by modeling good behavior, asking for feedback, hiring for civility, creating proper norms, rewarding/penalizing good/bad behavior, and conducting post departure interviews.
4-There will be black days so resilience is important. Hire for resilience and create resilience by facing harsh reality instead of being optimistic or pessimistic (people slip into denial as a coping mechanism), find meaning (just because you found meaning once doesn't mean you will find it again--businesses that survive have a purpose beyond just making money--having value is more important for a company than having resilient people), and improvise by making do with whatever is in hand.
5-Manage negative feelings by recognizing repetitive old thoughts/stories, labeling them as it is (I have this thought that../I have this feeling that...), accepting them by letting yourself experience them, and finally acting on your values instead of the negative thoughts and checking your action with your long term goals.
6-Create the habit of seeking feedback and seeing them as an opportunity to grow instead of fearing them and then take a step-by-step action toward change.
7-Value interpersonal skills and think before promoting if the person is ready if not let them go through 360-degree feedback, interrupt the ascent, and involve them in cross-functional assignments that build needed skills.
