The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book by Bradberry & Greaves
This book is a great “entry” book into the wide world of emotional and social intelligence, which I believe is the “new” competitive advantage in business and in life of this generation. In fact a series of studies from Yale University linked emotional intelligence to personal achievement, happiness, and professional success. I have found that all of success and happiness stems from relationships and this book does a great job of giving you everything you need to know about Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and how to apply it into your life. There are many books out there that go way too deep for me into the science side of things, where as this one keeps it simple, yet profound. Easy to read, understand, and apply is the winning combination of this book!
I attribute all of my progress and growth in this world to my commitment and practice of applying the many principles and teachings of Emotional Intelligence. There are so many lessons in this book that I carry it around with me and continue to refer to it on a regular basis – great stuff!
I have taken many lessons from this book, however here are 3 of the ones that really have had an impact on me:
1. EQ has four quadrants that you must be aware of and work towards improving. They are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness, and Relationship Management. The book does a good job of walking you through the areas and how to apply them to business and in life. I was surprised and intrigued to learn that EQ is a “flexible” skill while your personality does not change over time.
2. The Social-Awareness quadrant is the big one for me. What I’ve learned is that I can show up at a Level 10 (scale of 1-10) in my life, yet if that Level 10 impacts people in a way that I am unable to build the kind of relationships I need to build in order to be successful, I need to adapt how I show up to meet the relationship where it needs me to meet it. That doesn’t make me wrong, it just makes me want to make the relationship work!
3. We are a lot more “connected” than we even realize. Research continues to show that we have the ability to connect and relate with one another at levels many times we don’t give ourselves credit for. The challenge and opportunity is all around us when we slow down, pay attention to what is going on all around us, really connect with the people in our lives, and then be more understanding and patient with ourselves and others, we will accomplish significantly more – together. Yet that doesn’t mean to sit back and be lazy, it just means that when you build honest and real relationships, that energy will lead you and others to new heights.
There are so many more tidbits and lessons that I’ve taken from this book. As I travel around working with people, schools, and organizations, this is the one area that continues to come up as something that needs to be addressed. Our society sometimes just believes that Emotional Intelligence should just be there already, when in all reality in today’s world of “connectivity”, we are the farthest thing from really being connected.
I highly recommend adding this book to your Success & Happiness Library my friends as you will not be disappointed. In fact, I put this one in my Top 20 books to read, that is how important and user-friendly this book and content is. Happy reading my friends!
In Service to your Success,
Brandon Johnson
“The Positive Energy Guy”
