Defining Emotional Intelligence

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What Does it Mean to be Emotionally Intelligent?

In Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman tells the story of a study done at AT&T's Bell Labs, a New Jersey-based think tank full of engineers who were all very successful at school and who all scored highly on IQ tests. In the study, managers and peers nominated the top 10 to 15 percent who stood out as exceptional, then the researchers reviewed the records of those people, observed them working, interviewed them -- all to see what it was that could possibly separate them from such stiff competition.

What they found was that the stars were more likely to have already built networks within the lab which they could rely on when they needed them. In essence, they were the people whose email got answered when they had a question, whose phone rang when they needed it to. They were the superior collaborators, the most popular. Emotional intelligence in a very big way is about being socially adept, even sophisticated -- at work or at play. "Popular and charming," writes Goleman, "are terms we use for people whom we like to be with because their emotional skills make us feel good."

These popular and charming people, EI proponents would argue, have a more subtle control over their emotional brain, although "control" might be a misleading word. In essence, their brains are less likely to become dominated by emotional impulses. And, though the matter is complicated, it is not really their will that separates them; more than likely, it is in some large part the environment they've been exposed to, the kinds of people, the situation, their upbringing. EI promoters by no means assert that emotional intelligence is a completely learned phenomenon, or that it is independent from heredity. Based, though, on what we know of the way the brain develops in the first two decades, it seems that in some ways the neurological wiring to be able to read the emotions of others is not so different from the wiring that controls your fingers and arms as you play violin: the neural pathways that last are the ones we use, the ones we need to get on in the world

continued: http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/? ... elligence3

"I have got to know where you got the (Emotion) Notion" Topic

From just what I have read about this article on Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence research, I would say the Bell managers he interviewed who seemed the most successful with their staff exhibited the charming and manipulative leadership traits that successful military, religious and political leaders manifest in order to get others to do what they do. However, that being said, I will read the book, albeit with a critical eye.

Thanks, jjstar, for providing this information. I like your unique avatar.