I like Goleman's work and find his classifications of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and social skills) to be very valuable in treatment and coaching. Some of my better counseling sessions discuss these areas. The studies noted in the book help in understanding the ideas presented. One of my top ten favorite concepts in treatment and coaching. Buy it!

Working with emotional intelligence is a landmark book in that when it came out it made the first strong case for how emotional intelligence operates and work and why it's so important to have it. The information linking emotional intelligence to job performance is fascinating. The only place the book falls short is it's a bit outdated and it doesn't provide a lot of how you do it. For that I prefer The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book which just came out a couple of years ago and it's very how you do it focused including an online test that comes with the book and measures your EQ.

Working with emotional intelligence is a landmark book in that when it came out it made the first strong case for how emotional intelligence operates and work and why it's so important to have it. The information linking emotional intelligence to job performance is fascinating. The only place the book falls short is it's a bit outdated and it doesn't provide a lot of how you do it. For that I prefer The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book which just came out a couple of years ago and it's very how you do it focused including an online test that comes with the book and measures your EQ.

The whole idea about Emotional Intelligence is appealing and I actually buy it. But the just keeps telling stories after stories of how emotional intelligence is important, how most companies/people/training guides overlook it. The book never talks about how to actually develop emotional intelligence. The book is so incredibly repetitive and lacking any useful content that I am surprised how an intelligent person like Daniel Goleman could have thought of publishing it.

Let me tell you the gist of how to develop emotional intelligence (based on this book and several others):

- The part of brain dealing with emotional intelligence learns by practise/repetition. You cant unlearn an old habit or learn a new one by just thinking about it conceptually.
- Therefore to develop emotional intelligence, you have to train your mind repetitively.
- The re-wiring of a habit in your brain happens at the instant when an event occurs that triggers a habit and you react to that event in a different way than you are habitual of doing. By repeating this over and over, your brain will learn the new habit. There are numerous self-help books out there which will create exercises for you to follow in your daily routine so that you can repeatedly apply the new habits you want to learn. But these methods are very slow simply because the number of iterations required to re-wire the brain will require a long time to happen.
- If you want to change your habits fast, you can use certain meditation techniques. Some of them are more useful than others. A very potent technique is Vipassana meditation. Due to the way you use your brain while doing this meditation, the re-wiring happens very fast.

I do not want to explain this in detail here because:
1. This is a book review and the space is not enough :)
2. I am talking from my personal experience.
3. people usually like to read proofs for such claims. I am not an expert on meditation, nor a neuro-scientist. But I have practised Vipassana and it has given me great results.

So all that I will say is: you heard from me that Vipassana meditation is useful. Go do your own research find out what it is. Try it out. If you understand it, and apply it for a while, most likely you will start observing changes in your life very quickly (within weeks). If it actually benefits you, then accept it. Otherwise its just something you tried. If nothing else, you will atleast have learned a stress-reduction technique.

PS: If you find it absolutely useless, I feel sorry for you. Please dont sue me. :-)

I would give this book no more than 3 stars. The Reader puts you to sleep. The reason I only gave it 2 stars is because Disc 9 belongs to a totally different book. Chapers 40 to 40 something being read by a british woman. I did not get the entire book. Be rest assured I will be returning the item for a full refund or a complete book. Thank you.

Daniel Goleman encountered many leaders of industry emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence rather than technical expertise in excelling in their respective businesses. It is through his findings that he decided to write Working With Emotion Intelligence. In this book Goleman emphasizes that emotional intelligence is what makes one excel.
Increasingly organizations are becoming larger and more team oriented, thus being able to work in teams well and effectively is one of the most important skills to have in the work environment. A good manager will be able to get the best talents out of the group. Golemans book examines the changing work environment and the personal qualities that are of importance. The qualities listed are initiative, empathy, adaptability, and persuasiveness.
The traits that make great leaders are described in detail in the book. Goleman emphasizes high self confidence in leading people is essential to create a more productive work environment. Empathy is an ability that helps leaders in how to approach an individual by sensing what others feel. Empathy serves as a cohesive tool, which allows for effective communication amongst individuals.
Working With Emotional Intelligence is a great book for anybody interested in learning more about emotional intelligence and its uses in the work place. Daniel Goleman lists the parts of emotional intelligence and describes their use while providing illuminating examples. With the current explosive growth of information, no single individual can have enough knowledge to successfully compete in today's extremely competitive and rapidly changing environment. It is because of this that emotional intelligence is crucial to excel in organizations today. People that work well in teams have a key advantage. Emotional competencies can be learned, by reading this book you will be able to gain knowledge on these emotional competencies and put them to use in your daily life and career.

In excellent condition. Arrived within stated time frame. Very pleased with all aspects of the purchase.

Easy to read through. Very engaging. Helps you to look at the work environment in a different light.

I read "Emotional Intelligence" by the same author and I learned and enjoyed the important insights on emotional intelligence that it provided. This motivated me to get the second book, "Working with Emotional Intelligence". This is a classic sequel that focuses on how emotional intelligence is applied in the workplace. The book is more practical than "Emotional Intelligence" and one need not have read the prior work to get the most from the book. However, the previous book has important concepts about emotional intelligence which will be very useful to those who wish to study the subject further.

The book is based on interviews and studies with business leaders and organizations and it explains what sets star performers apart and how emotional intelligence is critical for success. This book however is not quite practical. Emotional intelligence cannot be learned just by reading a book but rather requires a lot of practice and behavioural change to acquire the appropriate habits. The various examples and situations depicted in the book are very helpful to assist readers to readily identify and relate to similar situations in our lives. Hence you will benefit a lot by becoming more self-aware, an important first step in enhanced emotional intelligence. The book could, however, have been condensed significantly without diluting the message.

The author highlights aspects of personalities in the workplace that can adversely affect morale. The book discusses things that seem like common sense and common courtesy but which many people tend to forget. The bottom line is that we need to be mature, professional, and treat others with respect.

The book will benefit a wide readership including managers and workers at all levels as well as the home. For example, for a senior manager, it is vital to appreciate that success is not just about great strategies and working practices but knowing how to deal with the people's emotions and feelings about things. Mere skill or academic achievement, on their own, does not translate into professional success. This well written and insightful book cogently describes the missing link, that is to have high emotional intelligence to complement the rational and analytical skills captured by the intelligence quotient.

If you want to read about emotional intelligence, then get the original book for the same author "Emotional Intelligence". If you want to read about practical applications of emotional intelligence in the work place then this is what this book is about. I only gave it two stars because I think that the whole book should be summarised into 20-30 pages and just added as a chapter to the original work. Its important to read about the applications of emotional intelligence, but in this book you end up reading the same story over and over again with different companies and different people.

I was expecting I would get information on IMPROVING my EQ. However the book only tells how EQ is important in working place but never provide methods on HOW TO IMPROVE it. Truely, the examples or stories of the importance of EQ are great, but I didn't benefit from anything.. as I ALREADY KNEW IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE EQ AT WORK! that's why I am looking for information about EQ..

Good information but does not execute how to utilize the information it leaves you confused and aggravated. I kept waiting for the punch line, guess the jokes on me.

I bought the unabridged audio CD version of this book. It was not well read, as others have said here, but I tried to look beyond that into the content.

Many of the assertions made by the author are supported by percentages and statistics which do not have any apparent source or academic credibility. The ideas are not bad - and some are downright fascinating. But I wonder about whether this is really "science" or something like scientology.

Goleman is clearly passionate and deep in belief, and his writing tends to express that depth. However, I don't know about the soundness of the platform on which so many of his assertions rest, and it makes me uneasy.

Given that he criticized corporate training programs for having little emphasis on measurable changes in business performance, this is really ironic.

Management and leadership is still as much art as science, and that might be where a reader can reconcile himself to Goleman's predicates. However, so much of what he asserts is not labelled art in this book.

This cd package was very informative but I can only listen to it for 30 minutes to 1 hour at a time because it will put me to sleep otherwise. The authors vice rarely changes and it can be boring at times. It teaches you a lot but be sure to listen to it in intervals.

I have been to many seminars and read a couple of books dealing with this topic. There are many helpful, albeit obvious, tips on working with difficult people, working in difficult situations, and working with teams. I wouldn't say I didn't like the book, but I wasn't really wowed by it either.

Ironically, a manager recommended this to me (which I found very insulting). After I read it I realized that she needed to read it most of all!

I have been to many seminars and read a couple of books dealing with this topic. There are many helpful, albeit obvious, tips on working with difficult people, working in difficult situations, and working with teams. I wouldn't say I didn't like the book, but I wasn't really wowed by it either.

Ironically, a manager recommended this to me (which I found very insulting). After I read it I realized that she needed to read it most of all!

This is a nice addition to the original "Emotional Intelligence" book by the same author. Although some of the examples seem to repeat the information from the original book, overall idea is quite nice. I found myself to be a little bit more intuitive to people's behavior at work after reading this book. Sometimes one can just "feel" that something is cooking although one will not always know what exactly it is. Next one to read would be "Social EQ" by this very same author.

The author of this book was obviously not applying "emotional intelligence" principles when writing this book. The points were all there and really proved why emtional intelligence is important, but it was just not done in a good manner. I do not typically shy away from long books, but this one was impossible. It was assigned to me and about 30 other people in my organization (we were to discuss and present ideas found inside the book), and can I tell you that no one finished it because of repetitious and dreadful writing? Just know that to be successful, you HAVE to exhibit emotional intelligence and be a intuitive, kind and generally good person to work with. If you don't believe me, save yourself the time/energy and buy the Cliffs notes.

A must read for trainers, trainees and people managers. Goleman's work provides a benchmark for training and development professionals. For everyone it provides a template for increasing one's self-awareness and operational effectiveness within for profit, non-profit and family environments. Nothing fancy, just a plain old common sense appproach backed by documented research and experiences. As a mentor to a significant number of students and professionals, I have recommended this text without hesitation.

This book simply showed that success is not just dependent on cognitive abilitites but more importantly on emotional competence.

In summary, emotional competence consists of personal competence which is the ability to recognize one's emotion and to successfully manage it and social competence which refers to the capacity to be more socially sensitive and to relate well with others.


The concept has been well-explained. Sprinkled with real-life examples, the book has effectively dramatized the importance of emotional intelligence in the corporate milieu. Without it, business suffers. With it, business prospers.

The description for each competence was clear and detailed. However, the book doesn't provide practical strategies on how to develop the various emotional skills. For instance, there's no detailed discussion on how to listen more effectively, show empathy, be more aware of one' s emotions, to name just a few.

In general, the books has achieved its purpose. This is an excellent treatise that I highly recommend to everyone.

Thanks to Daniel Goleman, this book was a remarkable mark in my personal life. it has helped me alot.
After reading it, I was presenting it as a gift to my loved ones.

I read and read and read and read and, well you got the point. I think is too much of the same. It is very strong the first half, but the other half took discipline to finish.

This book is rather long and boring. It presents much of the same information found in "Emotional Intelligence", and fills much of the rest of the space with vague generalization and even some indefensible platitudes like "the bigger the group, the higher the group IQ". However, despite the annoying tendency to run-on and assert vague and pleasant-sounding but questionable filler, the book contained enough "aha!" paragraphs to be a worthwhile read. There are some gems in this one, as long as you don't mind sifting through the sand.

Daniel Goleman followed up his bestselling classic Emotional Intelligence with this equally classic sequel that focuses on how emotional intelligence is applied in the workplace. Insightful and richly detailed, Goleman's work educates and inspires without ever sounding trite or sappy, like some annoying quick-fix scheme. If you are leadership bound and think success is all about strategy and technique, this will provide some very useful insights into what people really think about managing and being managed. The most intriguing sections focus on the application of emotional intelligence at work, but it would be pretty useful at home, too (if we could just get out of the office). If you think that you don't need to be more aware of the emotional undercurrents all around you, we warn that you need to read this most of all.

This is a wonderful book, and is truly an insightful look at what helps us to be successful in leadership positions in the workplace. The old model of senior management was based on owning all the information and knowledge and being able to understand what everyone does in fine detail, and was often the "promoted-up-through-the-ranks" type of leader. But with modern business involving so much change, and constantly shifting market demands and organizational structures, what worked well yesterday will not move the organization or your career ahead tomorrow.

The author uses as a platform the work on Emotional Intelligence, which unlike typically defined intelligence, focuses on the ability to apply emotional and inspirational information in a variety of social settings and through a vast array of relationships. It is this ability he concludes that predicts success in today's workplace.

Among the areas of discussion are five competencies in which our ability is revealed. The first is "Self Awareness" which includes emotional awareness, self-assessment, and self-confidence. How many times have we worked for or with someone who could not control their emotions and lacked the self awareness to understand how their actions impacted those around them? The importance of balancing performance while exhibiting the values of the organization through a positive culture has never been more in need. Many who have the intelligence to do the work, lack the emotional intelligence to build the relationships and culture needed to get the work done through others. The book explores these pitfalls and discusses suggestions for change.

The other areas are similar: "Self Regulation" (self-control, trustworthiness, adaptability, innovation), "Motivation" (achievement driven, commitment, initiative, and optimism), "Empathy" (understanding others, developing others, service oriented, politically aware), and "Social Skills" (influence, conflict management, leadership, catalyst, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and teamwork).

All of the five competencies are presented well, with examples and suggestions for improvement. Some reviewers have noted the lack of "scientific" type of analysis, but I feel that misses the point. The first hurdle to overcome if one wants to be as successful as possible is a basic awareness of the importance of interpersonal skills, and building strong working relationships with others. The opportunity for a purely autocratic style to operate in today's business is rare and therefore the majority of those leading businesses will need to focus on how they apply their EQ, not just their IQ.

This book does an excellent job at presenting what EQ success looks like and why it is important. It is not a step by step manual for improving one's business success, as that would ironically be an IQ approach. The book instead is a great eye-opener of the importance of emotions, and how we read others and interact with them. Highly recommended, and a great starting point for improving your ability to lead others in today's business environment.

While I found this a helpful and inspiring book, the academic and statistician in me found parts of it hard to take. In a popular book like this there is usually little detail about studies and methodology. But if there had been, it would have been a much more painful read and I would be complaining about that instead. Studies or not, though, much of it is just good common sense and rings true with my own experience of myself, other people, and the workplace. It is a well-written reminder of the qualities that distinguish people who are merely intelligent from those who are both influential and intelligent.

It seems to me that the concept of "Emotional Intelligence" might be better called "Emotional Competence," another term Goleman uses often and one that better distinguishes the qualities he is discussing from what we usually talk about as "intelligence" or "intellect."

For an older take on some of those qualities, readers might check out Aristotle's discussion of "magnanimity" in the Nichomachean Ethics. Emotionally competent people will be self-aware, self-controlled and self-confident to the extent justified; they will be highly ethical, trustworthy, and honest; they will be motivated; and they will be empathic and take genuine interest in the needs of others. (Aristotle might have some reservations about that last, and add that you need to walk slowly and speak with a deep voice.)

Goleman does not deny the importance of conventional intellectual or conceptual skills, but points out, as most of us have seen in our workplaces (and homes) that the ability to understand or come up with an idea is not always accompanied with the motivation and self-discipline to translate an idea into effective action, or to inspire or persuade others to help make that happen.

Academics in particular might benefit from this book--if they can willingly suspend disbelief--as a resource to improve teaching and advising and to work more effectively on research teams. The structure of college and university environments sometimes allows the emotionally incompetent more success than they deserve, but would probably also benefit more than other workplaces from faculty and administrators who can master the lessons of this book.

For those of you who may think that "IQ" doesn't matter much, read some real research:

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274.

In fact, IQ is the best predictor of work performance (correlating .51 with work performance across various jobs). There is no, I repeat no, credible evidence, apart from Goleman's endless unsubstantiated anecdotes, backing Goleman's claims. He has never published anything in a credible academic journal, and it is absolutely amazing that so many people who are uniformed but well-intentioned, have followed his advice. How many millions of dollars have been spend on unproven EQ programs and methods, that would have been better invested somewhere else?

I much prefer Goleman's first book. This book does not have the same depth or originality.

Daniel Goleman followed up his bestselling classic Emotional Intelligence with this equally classic sequel that focuses on how emotional intelligence is applied in the workplace. Insightful and richly detailed, Goleman's work educates and inspires without ever sounding trite or sappy, like some annoying quick-fix scheme. If you are leadership bound and think success is all about strategy and technique, this will provide some very useful insights into what people really think about managing and being managed. The most intriguing sections focus on the application of emotional intelligence at work, but it would be pretty useful at home, too (if we could just get out of the office). If you think that you don't need to be more aware of the emotional undercurrents all around you, we from getAbstract warn that you need to read this most of all.

Since the publication of Daniel Goleman's first book, Emotional Intelligence he has generated a remarkable industry around the topic. In this book from 2000, Goleman applies the ideas of his previous book to the workplace. Why should executives bother with this soft stuff? According to research cited by Goleman (see the summary in Appendix 2) almost all of the abilities that distinguished stars from average performers were emotional competencies. While pattern recognition and "big picture" thinking were correlated with outstanding performance, cognitive abilities in general - above a certain threshold - did not have significant correlation. "Emotional intelligence" refers to a set of competencies that characterizes how people manage feelings, interact, and communicate. Building on previous work by others, Goleman characterizes emotional intelligence as being founded on five personal and social competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social Skills. Each of these five is further analyzed into 12 personal and 13 social competencies such as Accurate Self-Assessment, Self-Control, Initiative, Developing Others, Influence, Conflict Management, and Building Bonds.
Unlike IQ, we can continue to improve emotional intelligence. Working With Emotional Intelligence is not a how-to book in the usual sense. It will help any executive understand the importance of EI in all its diverse aspects as well as showing examples of strong and weak EI in individual and organizational contexts. Improving is not easy work. Goleman explains the neurological basis of much of EI, including the role of the amygdala (which can make us impulsive and which affects our resilience under stress) and its interaction with the prefrontal lobes (which together also affect the ability to adapt to change), and the role of the catecholamines adrenaline and noradrenaline (which allow us to distinguish good stress from bad stress). Goleman looks at "empathic design" (p.139ff) and the contagious effects of emotions on groups, among other important applications in the workplace. He also provides a three-page list of "Guidelines for Emotional Competence Training". Although parts of Working With Emotional Intelligence will strike you as the obvious dressed up with stories, you can extract some important information by scanning through this book. In an age of record levels of job stress (according to an October 2002 study), any words of wisdom on this subject deserve a hearing.

Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, has been a big buzzword lately. In the wake of Enron and Worldcom, it's obvious that brilliance is not enough. So what is?

This book is a practical manual for how to apply emotional intelligence at your workplace. It is written by the godfather of the field, which is the source of it's credibility. This book is more applied than his prior work (Emotional Intelligence) and a little easier to understand and apply than his latest work (Primal Intelligence).

Coming out of reading this, you should have an understanding of the difference between analytical and emotional intelligence, as well as how to define and measure competencies in the latter. Additionally, you should have ideas on how to apply this in your team.

Although it's very practical in nature, the book is based by solid research. Goleman is a researcher at Case Western, and his research passes several levels of academic rigor. (Think of it as similar to "Good to Great" in that light)

Enjoy!

...based on interviews and studies with business leaders and organizations...explains what sets star performers apart and how emotional intelligence becomes the most important factor in success

A very useful book! - although the title is somewhat misleading. I have not read the first book in this series, Emotional Intelligence; which I'm told is more acacademic in nature and not very practical. This book however is quite practical. E&I by its very definition cannot be learned in the academic sense of reading a book, so a to do list is not appropriate. Hovever, the examples and situations depicted should help us to readily identify and relate to similar occurences in our everyday lives. In this regard - it is helping us to become more self aware - which is probably the first and most significant step.

The author suggests five competencies in which we can manage ourselves:

Self awareness (Emotional Awareness, self-accessment, self-confidence)

Self Regulation (Self-Control, Trustworthiness, adaptiblity, innovation)

Motivation (achievement driven, commitment, initiative, optimism)

Empathy (understanding others, developing others, service oriented, politically aware),

Social skills (influence, conflict management, leadership, catalyst, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and team).

The book's frame-work focuses on the five competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social skills.

I liked the personal stories illustrating the positive effects of soft skills. The storie sources came from friends, associates, and research cases.

I disliked the conclusions drawn from the stories suggesting confidence in cause and effect of EQ results.

I liked what Dr Goleman was advocating about the importance of people skills: social radar, arts of influence, and collaboration and teams.

I disliked lack of detail methodology to achieve the desired results. I felt there was too much contrast between IQ verse EQ. The book provides a strong case argument for an investment in Emotional Intelligent.

One shocking point the author makes early in the book, states that the top 1 percent of the Emotionally Intelligent in the IT field are 1200 percent more productive. I would have liked to read more cases studies about these observations and conclusions for his study. That statement alone sparked a ton of curiousity about EQ. I'm very interested in learning how effective IT managers are in accessing the emotional needs of their employees and customers and how to implement EQ to improve performance.

I disliked the lack of practical application. There was a disconnect between converting ideas of EQ into action. I felt the book focused too much on the principles of EQ, rather than the practical application of EQ. Basically he did not effectively answer the question, " How can I uses the EQ in my job to make a difference." I didn't get the opportunity to say "cool EQ works for me"

The title of this book is definately misleading, there is no practical advice on "How " to work with emotional intelligence besides endless anecdotes and examples.

Even with this entire book of loosely collected anecdotes, the auther still failed to convince me that his conclusion is based on serious, scientic research with logical analysis.

I think the auther is very biased on EQ vs IQ, the importance of EQ is overly stated. We all know IQ provides a basic framework/blueprint of a person, while EQ can really make a person excel compared with other people in similar IQ level. It should also put these two concepts in context, how important EQ/IQ in a person's success is really a variable, depending on what field, what job and what role a person is playing. In high-tech field, for example, for a technical position, I would rather hire a person with extraordinary IQ with average EQ, cause I know s/he could possibly perform as efficient as a group of 5 to10 people with average IQ. But for a tech manager position, a person with high EQ, reasonable IQ and profound knowledge in respective field would be a good fit. The way the author presents EQ is very simplistic and misleading!

I learned a lot of differents things on people's character traits, people surrounding me and especially myself and why I failed in communicating with others. As a lot of books on subjects like that, there is not a lot of but some repeating and at times it is a bit arduous when it explains the physiological functioning. Excellent book.

WORKING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman

I read Emotional Intelligence by the same author and thought it was great. I learned a great deal from the first book so I got the second book, Working with Emotional Intelligence. I haven't worked for anyone, or any company for a long time so it was not really a book for me. It's a book about just what the title says. For me, reading it was like a rehash of the first book. If you have a position with other people believe what the author says and `say go for it'.

It will be worth your time and effort to read this book, try, and put emotional intelligence into every decision where influence is an important function. If you are lecturing at meeting or working where emotional intelligence is import and, that's about any job. Then buy a copy of Goleman book, Working with Emotional Intelligence. You will find its money well spent. If you don't have the first book buy it too.

I wish Dr. Goleman have spent a little more time on ethics. I can see where this is a dangerous thing to teach to some people.
Roger L Lee

How we need to over ride our emotions sometimes! Daniel Goleman's book is indeed an insight to cultivate one's mind emotionally. Understanding and raising emotional intelligence is essential to your success and leadership potentials. Daniel selects examples and anecdotes from the Fortune 500 companies which shows the competency to deal with various factors at workplace. The training tools, conflict management, building bonds and motivation, encouragement and inspirations are really necessary not with the IQs only but with the 'Emotional Intelligence skills' which enhance leadership to excel. The author shows the way how to manage feelings, interact, communicate and tackle with the issues in organization. Initiative, self control, optimism are some key factors of personal competency which make the emotional control board of the mind geared up to treat right, care and understand. A must read for every business. Its never an arrogance, ego or pride but be in tune with 'Emotional Intelligence'- Thats the trick of the trades for every savvy Leader.

Emotional Intelligence is a limited concept book. It proposes that workplace success comes from a good and kind character, not from any actual technical, high IQ knowledge. Although, to a limited extent it is true -- I would rather work with a kind, unselfish, honest colleague and manager than a clever, mean human being -- at the same time it indirectly knocks down all the educational institutions and insults intelligent, knowledgeable people. If "emotional intelligence" is all we need to succeed at work, then we might as well employ airheads with saintly characters! But, we all know that in reality caring, understanding people rarely make it to a successful position. History has taught us that or we would not have experience-based sayings like "scum rises to the top"! If the concepts in this book were true, then we would not have ENRON to deal with and successful managers/executives everywhere would hand over their exorbitant compensation packages and divide their bonuses, demanding that they are so "emotionally intelligent" they cannot bring themselves to be selfish and pilfer company profits in this way. We would also not have such realistic books, like the superbly funny satire, "Management By Vice" by the knowledgeable author C.B.Don, where the realistic character traits of what are viewed as "successful managers" are portrayed. "Emotional Intelligence" is sure to have an instant appeal to those, who would rather use what comes naturally to every sly "animal"...their basic "emotional" instincts...rather than apply their IQ's to studying hard. What truly counts for progess and long-term company success is hiring high IQ, morally sound inventors and managers with profound knowledge in their respective fields. The concept of "emotional intelligence" is just unrealistic, too limited and only leads to more workplace "emotional" nitwits in postions of authority, who bungle profitable projects, while professing their "love" for all employees!

I agree with Daniel in most of what he said, however the title is a bit misleading. The word "Working" seems to be the operative, but I didn't see many examples of "how" to work, but "why" it is important to have emotional intelligence.

If you are looking for answers on how to modify your behavior to enhance your relationships, or working better with people, then you might have to look elsewhere.

In reading the book I felt like Mr. Goleman was trying to fill the pages rather than give concise content. This book would have been better at 1/4 the size.

We all know E-IQ is important and do NOT need a book of endless examples to illustrate this. I was looking for practical advice.

And the title is clearly misleading. How do you work with E-IQ? This is not mentioned.

Like many reviewers before me, I bought this book thinking that it will suggest ways one can go about improving one's emotional intelligence. However, what I ended up getting is endless anecdotes.

Goleman spends the entire book, listing anecdotes after anecdotes, explaining "why" emotional intelligence is important, but not "how" to become more emotionally intelligent.

I do not need to know "why" EI is important; I bought the book, I know it is important.

I began this book with great interest. With his excellent anecdotes, I quickly became fully convinced of the value of working with emotional intelligence. But instead of going on to make suggestions as to how a person could improve their own emotional inteligence, or how to help employees/managers in this area, he continued on and on with more anecdotes, clear until the end of the book. I didn't need any more convincing--I was already convinced by the first third of his book--I wanted him to give some advice about implementation, which he didn't give.

a followup to emotional intelligence a good foundation book to understanding the compleities involved with the office place. during the course of reading the book, i would often think 'oh yeah!! thats how i feel! or 'I wonder if I'm looked at that way?

This book covers aspects of personalities in the workplace that can poison moral. It touches on things that seem like common sense and common courtesy but way too many people forget. The book, like most of the business and management books out there, would be better served in a Cliffs Notes version. Most of what is usefull would fit in two chapters. But what is usefull in the book can have an impact on every level of any business where one person interacts with another. The bottom line. Be mature, professional, and treat others with respect. Duh !

You don't need to be a business manager or a CEO to find inspiration in this book. It can help you deal with just about anyone around you. Your parents, your spouse, your kids, your colleagues and your boss. It is not about power, it's about inner strength, it is about learning to be (or brushing up on being ) a decent human being. It will help you conceptualize and visualize (through short narratives) some of your own intutitions about dealing with others. When you come to understand why you are doing something, you can then do it a lot better. I teach, I train, I manage (not in a business or for profit envrironment thought); Goleman's book as become a tool of my trade.

"More and more companies are seeing that encouraging emotional intelligence skills is a vital component of any organization's management philosophy. 'You don't compete with products alone anymore, but how well you use your people,' a manager at Telia, the Swedish telecommunications company, put it to me. And Linda Keegan, vice president for executive development at Citibank, told me, 'Emotional intelligence is the underlying premise for all management training'...A 1997 survey of benchmark practices among major corporations, done by the American Society for Training and Development, found that four out of five companies are trying to promote emotional intelligence in their employees through training and development, when evaluating performance, and in hiring...If so, why write this book? Because many or most organizations' efforts to encourage emotional intelligence have been poor, wasting vast amounts of time, energy, and money...My mission in writing this book is to act as a guide to the scientific case for working with emotional intelligence-as individuals, in groups, as organizations. At every step I have sought to validate the science with the testimony of people in jobs and organizations of all kinds, and their voices will be heard all along the way" (pp.7-13).

In this context, Daniel Goleman firstly defines emotional competence as a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work, and emotional intelligence as a potential for learning the practical skills that are based on its elements. Thus, throughout this invaluable book, he discusses the relationship between the five dimensions of emotional intelligence and the twenty-five emotional competencies as listed below:

A. Personal Competence- These competencies determine how we manage ourselves.

I- Self-Awareness- Knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions.

1. Emotional awareness: Recognizing one's emotions and their effects.

2. Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one's strengths and limits.

3. Self-confidence: A strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities.

II- Self-Regulation- Managing one's internal states, impulses, and resources.

4. Self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check.

5. Trustworthiness: Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity.

6. Conscientiousness: Taking responsibility for personal performance.

7. Adaptability: Flexibility in handling change.

8. Innovation: Being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches, and new information.

III- Motivation- Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals.

9. Achievement drive: Striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence.

10. Commitment: Aligning with the goals of the group or organization.

11. Initiative: Readiness to act on opportunities.

12. Optimism: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.

B- Social Competence- These competencies determine how we handle relationships.

IV- Empathy- Awareness of others' feelings, needs, and concerns.

13. Understanding others: Sensing others' feelings, and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns.

14. Developing others: Sensing others' development needs and bolstering their abilities.

15. Service orientation: Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers' needs.

16. Leveraging diversity: Cultivating opportunities through different kinds of people.

17. Political awareness: Reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships.

V- Social Skills- Adeptness of inducing desirable responses in others.

18. Influence: Wielding effective tactics for persuasion.

19. Communication: Listening openly and sending convincing messages.

20. Conflict management: Negotiating and resolving disagreements.

21. Leadership: Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups.

22. Change catalyst: Initiating or managing change.

23. Building bonds: Nurturing instrumental relationships.

24. Collaboration and cooperation: Working with others toward shared goals.

25. Team capabilities: Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

Daniel Goleman writes that "this list offers a way to inventory our strengths and to pinpoint competencies we may want to bolster. Part 2 and 3 of the book give more detail and insight into each of the competencies, showing how they look when displayed in full power-or when they are lacking. Readers may want to turn directly to the competencies most relevant to their interests; the chapters describing them do build on one another to an extent (as do the competencies they describe), but they need not be read in a fixed order."

Strongly recommended.

The content of the book gets 5 stars; the delivery gets 3 stars averaging out to a 4 star rating.

The content is quite extraordinary. He makes a case for attributes like good communication skills, good interpersonal skills, ability to work well with others, common sense, and self=motivation in the work place. What we all knew intuitively is now confirmed in his writing and gives the reader a sense of validation. Every manager who reads this will now have the dilemma of choosing 5 Joe Schmoe's with above average emotional intelligence working together producing a good group IQ rather than 5 Albert Einsteins working independently for their company.

That being said, the delivery could have been a little better. I am not in the industrial psychology field (I am in health care) and I felt I was sorting through research findings/notes at times, something I don't care to do in my easy chair at night. The chapter outline/construction of the book could have been better organized also seeming somewhat hodgepodge rather than sequential.

All in all though, the content makes up for any deficiencies in delivery. Go out and buy it.

I was curious about this "Emotional Intelligence" phenomena surrounding the organizations almost like the new 90's clise. I bought Daniel Goleman "Emotional Intelligence" to learn about his theory and concepts and I must say it was very interesting to understand something we all know: clever people are not always the most succesful. Goleman's theory tells you why and broadens the concept of intelligence, where control of emotions and the way people interact contribute to achieve better results and develop leadership. I was also susprised with his scientific and psicologist approach (every psicologist must read this book). However, for those expecting how-to-become-success magic formulas or practical guidelines to reach high within an organization, as the book is often sold, you may be disappointed (for those, I recommend J.J. Fox "How to become CEO"). I bougth "Working with Emotial Intelligence" and reading it was boring. Goleman repeats its concepts presented in its prior book and tries to apply them to working environment. The result: a very long book, with little additional value if you have read "Emotional Intelligence". The book seems to be a marketing move to sell the same content under a new name. I suggest to buy Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence", which is better presented, more analytical and serious. I believe that Goleman's theory is worth to take a look. If you want to learn about it, do it by buying Emotional Intelligence". I also recommend The seven habits of highly effective people.

After struggeling for years to uncover those traits that push and hold organizational "stars" in their firmament Daniel Goleman has prepared a down to earth navagational chart for those of us who always knew there had to be a better way to understand the tools to shape behavior.

This is not a "Book for Dummies" and yet it is filled with practical real life experience and research to support his thesis that developed Emotional Competencies is what all organizations require to succeed.

Written with Emotional Intelligence as well, this is an easy read except for the time you will spend highlighting and exclaiming OH, Now I get it!!