Why It Can Matter More Than IQ - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (1995) by Daniel Goleman A. Introduction and Brief Overview Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman’s best-selling book, was published in 1995 and 1998 and is one of the most discussed and widely renowned and criticized books on the subject of Emotional Intelligence. This book served as the foundation for ideas and theories of the movement that challenges the traditional concept of intelligence and IQ. Goleman has brought together researches and claimed that Analytical Intelligence; which is traditionally measured by IQ tests and includes attributes such as mental ability, logical reasoning, cognition and comprehension; is merely just one form of intelligence. According to this book analytical or cognitive intelligence (measured using IQ tests) is not as importance as the other type, Emotional Intelligence. So one is not necessarily smarter simply because of having a high IQ score there are other factors as well that need to be considered. Emotional Intelligence is one of the most significant concepts introduced in the recent years that have attracted the attention of managers and businesses around the world. It means the competencies and ability of a person to understand, assess and control his/her emotions, and the use of those emotions to facilitate cognitive and social activities. According to Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (EI) plays a great role in defining the success or failure of a person, even more so than IQ (Intelligence Quotient) (Goleman, 1998). He supports his theory using various researches and identifying several cases where academically brilliant and people with highest IQ score have failed in their personal and corporate life. Conversely, people with moderate IQ scores and academic careers have achieved significant success in their social life and occupation. So IQ alone is not sufficient for having a successful life. Daniel Goleman has tried to answer this question by regarding the emotional intelligence as the most important factor for achieving success. He argued that self-awareness, self-control, the ability to understand the emotional needs of others and enthusiasm are the prerequisites for success and these can only be achieved by enhancing EI. Therefore, lack of EI can jeopardize the chances of success in practical life for even the most sound and well-headed individuals, whereas person with high emotional intelligence can handle people effectively as well as manage his social life in a better way; hence increasing the probability of success in career, relationships and in all walks of life. In the following part of the review, I will discuss and analyze Goleman’s framework of emotional intelligence presented in the book and how it can be applied to leadership styles and assist in managing people effectively; on the basis of other technical literature and professional articles available on the subject. B. Application of Goleman’s theory to Organizational Behavior Concepts What was previously considered to be Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence have recently attracted attention as Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI is particularly very important in managing people effectively which has drawn attention of top executives and managers from around the world to its validity and proper implementation. To explain the emotional intelligence, Goleman developed a model comprising five elements of EI. Each of these elements have their own characteristics and discussed below: 1. Self-Awareness – This includes being aware of your emotions and how they hinder your performance. Being aware of yourself and knowing what your powers, strengths and weaknesses are, learning from your experience and having a sense of self-confidence in your abilities and skills, and impact of your emotions on others. 2. Self-Regulation – This involves controlling yourself and your emotions under the situation of unrest and disorder. Your ability to handle stress and to concentrate under pressure, and developing self-control. 3. Motivation – To have the drive to do something for the sake of achievement and being optimist, enjoying challenges and taking advantages of incentives for the purpose of achieving your goals. 4. Empathy – This broadly mean having a diversified life experience, which includes the knowledge of different cultures, avoiding the tendency to stereotype, listening to other’s standpoint with an open mind and avoiding judgments on others. 5. Social Skills – This includes all sorts of skills for communicating and relating to others, including the ability to influence others through persuasion, good communication skills, cooperation, conflict resolution, negotiation and the ability to inspire and lead others. According to Goleman, people who possess these qualities are more likely to be successful in senior management and in all aspects of life. The supports his study by citing research studies from various authors that indicates senior managers with higher EI have performed better and managed people better than those who do not possess the aforementioned characteristics (Goleman, 1998). All the conclusion drawn by Goleman are very well supported with various researches, and he has also tried to expressed his personal opinions at various places which seem to be otherwise not much supported with solid evidence or facts. In chapter 3 “When Smart is Dumb”, Goleman has quoted several studies to prove that even students with very high IQ could possibly not succeed in practical lives. He not only claims that EQ plays greater role than IQ in defining your success, in fact he claims that as much as 80% of success if dependent on EQ, whilst IQ cannot play a role greater than 20% in your success. This seems to be a judgment without any research or supporting facts. However Goleman himself have recently clarified through an article published at TIME by saying that this is not true (First paragraph, Goleman, 2011). According to Goleman, “This particular myth may stem from a misreading of the studies I’ve written about in my books that look at how much of career success is accounted for by a person’s IQ alone.” (Goleman, 2011). Goleman has put forward the idea that Emotional Intelligence is not defined at birth and it can be improved with practice. Therefore the task we face is defining how one can incorporate the emotional intelligence framework into real life in order to manage and lead people effectively. Several organizational behavior and leadership theories have taught us that a successful leader is the one who knows about his/her staff’s problems, their emotional needs, their skills and abilities and keeps in control of the situation; not the one who ignore their needs and shouts at his/her staff under work stress. An individual’s success as a leader will depend on how better he knows about each of the five components of emotional intelligence and how well he can handle each one of them. A self-aware leader will always know how his emotions will impact the others and he will be aware of his capabilities and what is the best leadership style suited to his/her staff. Likewise leaders who regulate themselves are characterized by psychological hardiness and they remain in control even in the toughest situations. They do not verbally attach others, remain calm and passes the blame but assigns the responsibility and influence their staff to work with high motivation. A successful leader being highly motivated will set high performance target and work towards them assess their value. Such leaders will also communicate empathically and know how to resolve conflict and praise others for their achievements (Martinuzzi). Since EI allows us to better understand the emotional needs of others, evaluate the emotional components of messages and to empathize with others using the mental perspective that enables us to listen to others with an open mind and heart, it can be considered a significant and essential component of our intelligence and skills. One of the five elements of Goleman’s model of EI is “Empathy” which helps us to achieve success in communications by trying to understand the point of view of others, withholding premature judgments and looking at the situation from their perspective by entering into their feelings. Myrna Milani discusses the role empathy plays in her profession as veterinarians, by stating that this emotion is vital not just in human-human relationships, but also human-animal relationships. Researches aimed at animal behavior have also been intrigued by the effects and significance of empathic behavior (Milani, 2010). C. Practical Value of the Emotional Intelligence Goleman’s five-dimension framework can be used as an accurate means of characteristics and qualities associated with feelings and emotions. It can be said that emotional intelligence is a very important concept as put forward in this book by Daniel Goleman that allows us to evaluate how awareness of emotions and feelings can help us in helping ourselves and managing others; and allow us to avoid pathological situations (e.g., depression) that are otherwise due to lack of emotional knowledge. As discussed in earlier parts of the review, emotional intelligence is an emerging concept that goes side by side with analytical and cognitive aspects of traditional intelligence. The concept of EI has provided managers with a frame of mind that allows them to anticipate possible reactions of others to their actions, in developing meaningful relationships with their clients and staff and analyzing the emotional aspect of each situation by incorporating these elements in decision-making. Thus, Emotional Intelligence has result in better management decision and higher job satisfaction. For example, research has identified that doctors who are aware of their patients’ emotions and their problems are more effective in treating their illness than their colleagues with low EQ score (Schwartz, 2000). D. Conclusion and Recommendation Emotional Intelligence is a very interesting and insightful book that has provided me in-depth knowledge about the physical process of emotions and how our brain reacts to certain situations on the basis of these emotions. This is the book that put the concept of Emotional Intelligence on the map. However it must be noted that the importance of IQ in successful career and life should not be undermined, as Daniel Goleman has himself said, “There’s no question IQ is by far the better determinant of career success,..” Nevertheless the book has a lot of interesting knowledge concerning emotional intelligence and is recommended for those who are looking for well-researched, easily understandable (except some jargon) psychological reading on Emotional Intelligence. Works Cited Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books, 1994. Print. Milani, Myrna. "Empathy and Communication." National Institutes of Health. NCBI, n.d. Web. 20 Oct 2012. . Goleman, Daniel. "They’ve Taken Emotional Intelligence Too Far." TIME Ideas. N.p., 1 2011. Web. 20 Oct 2012. . Martinuzzi, Bruna. "Emotional Intelligence in Leadership." MindTools. N.p.. Web. 20 Oct 2012. . Schwartz, Tony. "How Do You Feel?." . Fast Company, 31 2000. Web. 20 Oct 2012. . Read More