Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradberry & Greaves
This is the follow up book to my last book review, as I had come across it and wanted to get the latest and greatest updates. This was another easy-to-understand and easy-to-read book by the authors – well done! This one goes into more strategies on how to improve your Emotional Intelligence in the 4 quadrants (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management), which is very valuable because if you don’t put the time and energy into getting better at EI, you won’t get the incredible rewards that await you when you have high emotional intelligence. In their years of research the authors have found that the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence is Emotional Intelligence.
There are many lessons from this book that I am taking away, however here are 3 of the main ones:
1. People trust what they see over what they hear. You can be the greatest “talker” in the world when it comes to relationships, but overall people will judge you on your actions versus your words. By investing the time and energy into building up your EI awareness and then putting the work into improving all 4 quadrants will lead you to new heights – personally and professionally.
2. Developing your EI and building great relationships within your career is part of your job. The authors made a statement similar to this and it really jumped out at me. It made me think beyond a job being the technical side of “doing the job” and realizing, many times unwritten, that it is as important to build great relationships with the people you are working with. I have always considered it important and put the effort out there, yet this statement made me wonder if that is the case for everyone?
3. Maybe the things that I do frustrate people just as much as when I would get frustrated with things that they would do. It was a reality check for me and a reminder that none of us are perfect no matter the amount of development and growth we have had. I actually chuckled to myself thinking about times when I got frustrated in the past and how I am sure I did the same to others. What a “fun” way to raise my level of awareness and commit to being better as I move forward.
Another thing that I enjoyed about this book is the easy to complete EI assessment that you can take online to give you a measurement of sorts to where you are at currently and how you can improve in the 4 quadrants as you move forward in your personal and professional growth. I believe that relationships and more specifically, Emotional Intelligence, will continue to prove to be one of the most valuable assets of a successful and happy person moving into the future of this world. EI 2.0 will be a great addition to your Success & Happiness Library!
In Service to your Success,
Brandon W Johnson
“Positive Energy Guy”
