Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves. Book Review by Jatin Sanghavi.

Emotional Intelligence also is known as EQ in short plays a huge intangible role in helping us understand and manage emotions.

The manifold applications of Emotional Intelligence(EQ) range from organizational situations to home life, parenting, romantic relationships, and more. Maybe you are looking for actionable tips for personal development, or perhaps you want to understand better how the concept has grown.

This book is packed with actionable tips.

A person is made of Intelligence quotient (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Personality.

EQ and Personality can be developed but IQ can’t but personally, I think IQ can be improved.

EQ has 2 competencies and 4 categories.

1. Personal Competence

2. Social Competence

In Personal Competence, 2 categories are

a. Self Awareness – The ability to recognize an emotion as it “happens”.

b. Self Management – The ability to have control over yourself when you experience emotions

In Social Competence, 2 categories are

a. Social Awareness – The ability to develop strong interpersonal skills (people skills) to better understand, empathize, and negotiate with others in a global economy.

b. Relationship Management – The ability to recognize how other people are thinking and feeling so you can better communicate with them

There are about 36 strategies to improve your EQ in 4 categories. I have been doing these since I was a child due to culture, parental upbringing, etc but did not know that they were termed as EQ. And some of these have been part of my daily life – personal and professional.

Some of my favorite takeaways:

“The difference between interaction and a relationship is a matter of frequency”. If you are wanting to build relationships with those around your best bet for starting to make this happen is by interacting more often and having more conversations with the individual you desire to build a relationship with.

Living in the moment – If in a meeting or wherever you be as present as possible so that you see the people around you and experience life in that moment.

Explain decisions do not just make them. I think this one really is important because the rationale behind a decision is important and it could come across the wrong way without knowing why the decision was made.

You use your self- awareness skills to notice your feelings and judge if your needs are being satisfied ed. You use your self- management skills to express your feelings and act accordingly to benefit t the connection. Finally, you use your social awareness skills to better understand the other person’s needs and feelings. In the end, no man is an island; relationships are an essential and fulfilling part of life. Since you are half of any relationship, you have half of the responsibility of deepening these connections.

“Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, this is not easy.” We can thank Greek philosopher Aristotle for those words and enduring insight into managing our emotions and relationships. If you can master this one, consider your EQ journey a success.

To put it professionally, Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

In conclusion, Emotional Intelligence is a learned skill rather than some unalterable trait; it also can be unlearned. So EQ can be worked on if you have the desire to adjust your emotions to help you succeed. The book has many statistics that show 90% of high performers have high EQ’s while only 20% of low performers have high EQ’s. Some of what the book brought forth was common sense and at the same time, it was worth repeating and remembering to follow through.

Fortunately, I have the book so that I can refer to it anytime which I definitely will do. I strongly feel that this book is worth the time, effort and helps you to enhance yourself or to be a new/better you or in my own upgrade version I will call it

THE NEW ME 2.0 :-)

Enjoy reading, learning, and discovering yourself.