Emotional skills give execs an edge in the workplace

"Hearts and Minds: Working With Emotional Intelligence"
By Daniel Goleman
Bantam Books
Hardcover
$25.95, 383 pages

Once upon a time, you could build a fast-track career based on smarts and experience alone. But, at the leading edges of the workplace, emotional skills have replaced IQ and experience as the most important markers of personal success.

Daniel Goleman didn't invent the idea of emotional intelligence, but his bestseller of the same name implanted it firmly in the public mind. In that book, he laid out the evidence that cognitive skills -- usually measured as IQ -- are only partly responsible for personal success. The other ingredient is the set of interpersonal skills that we have come to identify as "emotional intelligence."

In his new book, Goleman turns his attention to performance on the job, and his conclusions are stunning. His research shows that emotional intelligence -- which includes such things as self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, empathy and adeptness in relationships -- may be up to 25 times as potent as IQ in determining workplace success.

So, not surprisingly, optimistic salespeople consistently outperform those who are less upbeat. Retail store managers who respond well to pressure run the most profitable and productive stores. Naval officers with the best emotional skills make the best leaders. Goleman sums up the conclusions this way: "IQ alone at best leaves 75 percent of job success unexplained, and at worst, 96 percent -- in other words, it does not determine who succeeds and who fails."

The reason why emotional intelligence carries so much more weight than IQ is deceptively simple. In most good professional and technical jobs, Goleman explains, there is an entry threshold for intelligence. Everybody who gets there already has an IQ of at least 110 to 120, so a few extra points of IQ doesn't make much of a difference.

A crucial edge

But emotional intelligence adds a crucial dimension to raw cognitive skills. Citing research into the distinguishing characteristics of great CEOs, Goleman writes: "What distinguished [them] was the ability to see the big picture, to recognize telling patterns amidst the clutter of info, and to think far into the future. But great leaders go a step further, integrating emotional realities into what they see, and so instilling strategy with meaning and resonance."

It seems so obvious that emotionally competent people should be the best performers, especially in a workplace that is suddenly focused on human capital, interdependent teams and new leadership styles.

Yet, historically, people have measured and evaluated almost exclusively for cognitive skills and expertise. But, that is beginning to change, Goleman said. Corporations, which spend small fortunes identifying, nurturing and training their future leaders, have begun to zero in on emotional intelligence as a key component.

Prescription for leader

He quotes Mathew Juechter, chairman of the American Society for Training and Development, on the issue: "Leadership is almost all emotional intelligence, especially in distinguishing between what managers do and what leaders do -- things like taking a stand, knowing what's important to you, pursuing your goals in partnership with others."

Goleman also describes the results of a U.S. Navy study of its best commanding officers: "The greatest difference between average and superior leaders was in their emotional style. The most effective leaders were more positive and outgoing, more emotionally expressive and dramatic, warmer and more sociable (including smiling more), friendlier and more democratic, more cooperative, more likable and `fun to be with,' more appreciative and trustful, and even gentler than those who were merely average."

If that's the prescription for the new leader, then almost everyone is eligible for the job. Unlike IQ, emotional intelligence is a learned competence. Most people have the potential to be emotionally intelligent, but may not have learned the skills that would let them apply it.

The old stereotype of autocratic, paternalistic, fear-based business is shredding quickly, undone by democracy in the workplace, the onrush of the feminine, a new awareness of the spirit and soul of business and, now, the emergence of emotional intelligence.

Goleman's book is a tour de force exploration of the bonding of the heart with the mind in modern business.

Write, fax or e-mail (strategies@businesschronicle.com) O'Keefe c/o Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Executive Bookshelf appears twice-monthly.

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