Daniel Goleman is the author of the NY Times best seller entitled “Emotional Intelligence” and “Social Intelligence – The New Science of Human Relationships”.
Goleman’s work has direct applications in the world of teamwork. In a recent post at his blog, Goleman reports on two independent studies that reflect the power of emotional and social intelligence.
If you were trapped by a blizzard and your very survival depended on how well you could work together with a handful of other people, what should you wish for in your team-mates? A goodly dose of emotional intelligence.
That conclusion stems from two independent studies reported in the journal Human Performance. In both studies teams of volunteers were posed the challenge of how to survive in simulation of desperate survival scenarios, like a blizzard. Close to 20 teams were evaluated on how well they came up with solutions that would help them survive.
The champion teams, both studies found, were highest in group emotional intelligence. Intriguingly, when individuals were given the same challenge, their cognitive ability (as measured by SAT scores – these were college students) was the best predictor of survival. But once people were put in a team situation, individual cognitive ability made virtually no difference – instead emotional intelligence made the difference.
CLICK HERE to read Goleman’s full post on this subject.
