Hari's Reviews
Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Created: Sat Mar 20 16:08:46 2010 | Last modified: Sat Mar 20 16:08:46 2010
Rating: 
When I first picked up this book I thought it was one of those self-help cookbooks which talks about success. Not so.
Working with emotional intelligence is actually a book on managing and directing emotional intelligence in the workplace to achieve maximum productivity and the whole analysis is based on hard scientific analysis and research by prominent professionals in the HR field. This book, essentially is a Human Resource and Organizational Behaviour textbook written in a conversational, easy to understand manner without bogging the reader down to theory. The whole book is smattered with plenty of real life cases and experiences of industry professionals and CEOS of major corporations including Fortune 500 companies. In essence it's a book that targets MBAs and not the casual reader who expects a book of "how to become successful in 42 days" or similar.
The underlying premises are not only based on scientific research but are also backed by home truths. How IQ does not correspond with career growth but the most successful people are the ones who exhibit a highly developed emotional intelligence. The concept of emotional intelligence is extremely well explained in this book. It's not just about an outgoing or cheerful personality - there's a lot more to it than that.
I like the way the author also writes about the role of values and ethics in the corporate world which seems to be missing in a lot in the real world. The basis of exhibiting leadership qualities is all about managing people by being genuinely empathetic and tuned to their feelings and emotions and not by manipulating them. With dozens of examples, the author quickly establishes the practices of successful managers and CEOs who turned around their companies into highly profitable and successful units.
In essence this book is about managing and developing emotional intelligence which helps people to not only manage their own, but also other people's emotions in the workplace and developing the qualities of leadership. Whether one likes it or not, the most successful people are not necessarily the most intelligent, but the ones who exhibit greater levels of emotional intelligence and awareness.
The writing is very straightforward and informal and not at all like a textbook. However, it's a big book and you'll come across inevitable repetitions of concepts albeit from different angles. In the end of it, the reader comes away with solid research backed by real-world examples of the importance of emotional intelligence and home-truths of human resource management. Truly a must-read for anybody who aspires to climb the corporate ladder.