A Summary of “Emotional Intelligence”

By Daniel Goleman

The intelligence tests were originally designed to screen the candidates with higher level of
mental alertness. It is another debate whether intelligence equates to the IQ scores but it is a
fact that majority of the successful people score average on IQ tests. Mental alertness may
play some role but it is not the main reason of success, in most of the cases.

Then what are requirements for a successful life?

People have been trying to answer this question for centuries. A lot has been said and much more shall be
told in future. Daniel Goleman presented “Emotional Intelligence” as a main factor of
success. He rejected the conventional concepts of intelligence, IQ scoring reliability and
alertness of mind as elements of success. He argued that self-control, zeal and persistence are the main
features of every successful story.

This summary of “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman is an attempt to review his ideas. However, it
should not be taken as an alternative to the book.

Title and Introduction

The intriguing title of “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman claims the book as ground breaking. It
also suggests that the book shall redefine what it means to be smart. The sub-title starts the controversy by
informing that emotional intelligence is more important than the IQ scoring.

The introductory chapter “Aristotle Challenge” begins with a quotation from Aristotle on aggressive
emotions. The challenge is offered to those who consider that intelligence alone is sufficient to make their
life successful. The hereditary theories of intelligence are criticized.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman states that emotional intelligence (EQ) is actually more crucial than general
intelligence (IQ) in terms of career success. Emotional intelligence refers to how well an individual handles
herself and others rather than how smart she is or how capable she is in terms of technical skills. Emotional
intelligence includes the attributes of self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, confidence, self-
motivated, empathy, and social deftness. Think of EQ as being the social equivalent of IQ. In organizations
undergoing rapid change, emotional intelligence may determine who get promoted and who gets passed
over or who gets laid off and who stays, according to Goleman. Studies have consistently shown, for
example, that the competencies associated with emotional intelligence (e.g., the ability to persuade others,
the ability to understand others, and so on) are twice as important for career success as intelligence (IQ) or
technical competencies.

Part I
The book is comprised of five parts with 16 chapters and six appendixes. The first part “The Emotional
Brain” consists of two chapters which focus upon the physical side of the emotional intelligence.

Chapter 1: What are Emotions for?

Chapter 2: Anatomy of an Emotional Hijacking.

In these chapters Daniel Goldman describes the dynamic interrelation of the cortex and the limbic system.
The cortex is considered a seat of rationality while the limbic system is the part of brain where your
emotions are processed. He presents emotional intelligence in the sense of moderation of primitive
emotional impulses by the rational mind. He suggests that the emotional intelligence can be learnt with
practice.

Part II

This part, “The Nature of Emotional Intelligence” comprises of six chapters.

Chapter 3: When Smart is Dumb

Chapter 4: Know Thyself

Chapter 5: Passion’s Slave

Chapter 6: The Master Aptitude

Chapter 7: The roots of empathy

Chapter 8: The Social Arts

In chapter 3, Daniel Goleman quotes a number of studies to prove that many high IQ scoring students have
failed in their practical lives while many average people have got phenomenon successes. He claims that if
the IQ scoring has to play any role in your success, it can’t be more than 20%. He also claims that your
80% success is based on your emotional intelligence.

The Chapter 4 discusses a reflexive mode of experience which the author calls “self-awareness” or “self-
observation”. He assimilates self-awareness with Freud’s “evenly hovering attention”. However, he fails to
differentiate between consciousness and thought, like Freud. He says that you should know yourself and
your strengths instead of your IQ test and its results.

Chapter 5, “Passion’s Slaves”, states that emotional disorders need pharmacological help. However, there
are certain disorders like manic-depression where the patient never feels any need for medication. The
author claims that such severe emotional disorders can hamper your success if not handled properly.

He also gives considerable attention to depressive states. He says that when you are depressed, you need
to focus your attention to some upbeat activity. However, you should always avoid tragic movies, novels
and stories which shall drag your mood further down.
Observing that anger is the most difficult emotional impulse to resist, Goleman rejects the popular myth that
“ventilating” is an effective way of reducing anger. However, he also does not support pushing the anger
out of awareness. He goes for a third option and suggests that you should experience anger by assuming
that anger belongs to some other person.

In Chapter 6, “The Master Aptitude,” Goleman highlights importance of emotional traits such as enthusiasm
and persistence. He says that most of the Asian students show better record of success than their white
counterparts, not for their IQ level but persistence to improve their weaknesses.

In Chapter 7, “The Roots of Empathy,” Daniel Goldman presents emotional intelligence in gender
distribution. He considers that women are better than men in empathy. He also suggests that empathy
helps with romantic life. He demonstrates an appreciation of emotions as an instrument of knowledge.

The author continues in chapter 8, “The Social Arts”, that there is more to attunement than the emotional
element.

Part III

This part of the book, “Emotional Intelligence Applied”, is comprised of three chapters:

Chapter 9: Intimate Enemies

Chapter 10: Managing with Heart

Chapter 11: Mind and Medicine.

Chapter 9 deals with the role of emotion in marital life. It focuses upon the amount of expressive emotions
that each sex makes during different times of their lives. They have good friends from the opposite sexes in
their early lives but slowly lose their interest until they achieve puberty and start dating.

Different studies are placed to prove that girls can express their emotions better than boys. The reason lies
in the fact that girls learn languages more quickly than boys do.

Daniel Goleman observes that men are reluctant to talk with their wives about their relationship. He also
observes that men may have a rosier view than their wives of just about everything in relationship—
lovemaking, finances, ties with in-laws, how well they listened to each other, how much their flaws
mattered. Wives, in general, are more vocal about their complaints than their husbands, particularly among
unhappy couples.

In Chapter 10, “Managing with Heart,” Goleman quotes a study conducted on a group where each member
is a star in the academic IQ test results. The results were astonishing. Some proved excellent and others
yielded average or even below average results in an emotional intelligence test.

Consider, for example, a study of star performers at Bell Labs, the world-famous scientific think tank near
Princeton. The labs are peopled by engineers and scientists who are all at the top on academic IQ tests.
But within this pool of talent, some emerge as stars, while others are only average in their output. What
makes the difference between stars and the others is not their academic IQ, but their emotional IQ. They
are better able to motivate themselves, and better able to work their informal networks into ad hoc teams.

The “stars” were studied in one division at the labs, a unit that creates and designs the electronic switches
that control telephone systems—a highly sophisticated and demanding piece of electronic engineering.
Because the work is beyond the capacity of any one person to tackle, it is done in teams that can range
from just 5 or so engineers to 150. No single engineer knows enough to do the job alone; getting things
done demands on tapping other people’s expertise. To find out what made the difference between those
who were highly productive and those who were only average, Robert Kelley and Janet Caplan had
managers and peers nominate the 10 to 15 percent of engineers who stood out as stars.

When they compared the stars with everyone else, the most dramatic finding, at first, was the paucity of
differences between the two groups. “Based on a wide range of cognitive and social measures, from
standard tests for IQ to personality inventories, there’s little meaningful difference in innate abilities,” Kelley
and Caplan wrote in the Harvard Business Review. “As it develops, academic talent was not a good
predictor of on-the-job productivity, nor was IQ.

But after detailed interviews, the critical difference emerged in the internal and interpersonal strategies
“stars” used to get their work done. One of the most important turned out to be a rapport with a network of
key people. The ultimate study proved that the stars in the emotional intelligence tests were the people who
used to get their work finished. Interestingly, it is one of the main characteristics of the successful people.

The reported result is an artifact of the flawed methodology of Kelley and Caplan. Of  course people with
good interpersonal skills are going to win a popularity contest, but this proves nothing about their
productivity. It’s a truism that the real “stars” in scientific and technical fields are often maladjusted nerds.

The ultimate study proved that the stars in the emotional intelligence tests were the people who used to get
their work finished. Interestingly, it is one of the main characteristics of the successful people.

However, the average or the below average scorers in the emotional intelligence people were those who
start many tasks at a time and leave most of them unfinished. It is one of the reasons behind most of the
unsuccessful people.

In Chapter 11, “Mind and Medicine,” Goleman summarizes a recent research on the relationship between
health and the emotions. Among many interesting findings reported in this chapter one is the following: “A
network of researchers is finding that the chemical messengers that operate most extensively in both brain
and immune system are those that are most dense in neural areas that regulate emotion.”

People who experience chronic anxiety, long periods of sadness and pessimism, unremitting tension or
incessant hostility, relentless cynicism or suspiciousness, face double the risk of disease—including
asthma, arthritis, headaches, peptic ulcers, and heart disease.

Part IV

This part, “Windows of Opportunity”, comprises of three chapters:

Chapter 12: The Family Crucible

Chapter 13: Trauma and Emotional Relearning

Chapter 14: Temperament is not Destiny

In a section titled “Abuse: The Extinction of Empathy” in Chapter 12, “The Family Crucible,” Goleman writes
that the children who are often subject of beating by their parents react with the same way in distress. They
loose empathy if they have to face such situations frequently.

In Chapter 13, “Trauma and Emotional Relearning,” Goleman observes that when you face trauma you
may end in biological problems. But the problem becomes severe when you are put in an uncontrollable
stress.

The Chapter 14, “Temperament is not Destiny,” quotes a study. The people having strong right and left
frontal activity were tested on a personality test. The first group showed a distinctive behavior. They were
prone to be moody, suspicious of the world and worried on small problems. However, the second group
showed entirely different trends. They were lower in depression, more confident and rewardingly engaged
in life.

Part V

The part V, “Emotional Literacy”, comprises of two last chapters:

Chapter 15: The Cost of Emotional Literacy

Chapter 16: Schooling the Emotions

In Chapter 15, “The Cost of Emotional Illiteracy,” Goleman writes that some people are unable to
differentiate between being scared and angry. They feel more hunger in depressing situations and eat more
to gain weight. The author also indicates that the people with few friends or with extreme tendencies for
loneliness are at great risk of medical diseases and early death.

The chapter 16, “Schooling the Emotions” is the final chapter of the book. Here Goleman concludes the
book with training programs to educate you “Self Science”. He also mentions emotional coaching such as
“Resolving Conflict Creatively Program” in the New York public schools, in which children are encouraged
to “be assertive” and articulate their feelings in situations involving conflict with others.

He says that emotional intelligence can be taught. However, it is not enough to lecture children. Instead,
they should be allowed to see ethics in practice. Furthermore, they should be given different models of
ethics so that they may develop their own value conclusions.

Benefits

High EQ can lead to

- Increased productivity
- Enhanced leadership skills
- Improved responsiveness
- Greater creativity
- Create enthusiastic work environments
- Reduce stress levels
- Resolve emotional issues
- Improve the well being of employees
- Improve relationships

EQ serves as a valuable tool for HR professionals and managers who intend to bring about changes in
their organizations. Managers who can use the applications of EI help employees become better team
players, show greater creativity in their work and increase overall productivity through the powerful
techniques of integrating and applying emotional intelligence at workplace. Having the ability to understand
what motivates individual employees, an EI manager adapts management style to their unique values and
motives.

Q & A:

a) Write a short note on EI/EQ

b) How can EQ/EI be applied in the corporate world?
c) Give examples of companies using these concepts in India?