On work psychology

By Daniel Goleman

The rules for work are changing. We’re being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will be not, who will be let go and who retained, who passed over and who promoted.

The new rules predict who is most likely to become a star performer and who is most prone to derailing. And, no matter what field we work in currently, they measure the traits that are crucial to our marketability for future jobs…

The new measure takes for granted having enough intellectual ability and technical know-how to do our jobs; it focuses, instead, on personal qualities, such as initiative and empathy, adaptability and persuasiveness.

This is no passing fad, nor just the management nostrum of the moment. The data that argue for taking it seriously is based on studies of tens of thousands of working people, in callings of every kind. The research distils with unprecedented precision which qualities mark a star performer. It demonstrates which human abilities make up the greater part of the ingredients for excellence at work — most especially for leadership.

If you work in a large organisation… or you are applying for a job, you are likely to be scrutinised through this lens, though no one will tell you so explicitly.

From “Working With Emotional Intelligence”