Emotional Intelligence Superpowers

Talks at Google, 2017

5 min read

4 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

You may be smart, but are you also emotionally intelligent?

1×

Editorial Rating

Qualities

Applicable
Overview
Engaging

Recommendation

Yale School of Medicine professor Marc Brackett compellingly talks about the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in educational and business environments. Students who learn to improve their EI have better life outcomes; businesses that create a healthy EI environment enjoy improved working relations and greater creativity. Brackett uses the acronym RULER to outline the five essential emotional skills: Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing and Regulating. No matter your temperament or age, you can learn to develop your EI and reap the benefits to your creativity, relationships and health.

Summary

In the United States, schools and businesses tend to value IQ more than emotional intelligence (EI). But high EI boosts creativity and collaboration.

Marc Brackett’s study of 45,000 high school students showed that they spend between 70% and 80% of their time experiencing negative emotions like boredom and stress. Similarly, his study of 25,000 workers across the United States revealed that their most prevalent emotion was also stress – not the good kind that helps your productivity, but the bad kind that can make you hate your job, have trouble concentrating and even make you physically ill.

To boost creativity and improve people’s relationships and health, schools and companies need to create healthy emotional environments, and help their students and employees develop their emotional intelligence (EI).

Students with high EI have fewer mental health and behavioral issues, better academic outcomes, and develop stronger social bonds. Employees whose supervisors demonstrate high EI feel inspired 80% of the time, and they have much lower rates of burnout. They are more engaged, and see their work as meaningful and...

About the Speaker

Marc Brackett is the founder and director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center. He’s the author of Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society to Thrive.

Comment on this summary

Sign in to share your opinion
A. M. 2 months ago

Good
F. H. 9 months ago

Good
A. O. 2 years ago

Great piece

More on this topic

In our Journal

1 year ago

Journal Article

Perseverance Is Its Own Reward

Earnest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea Or: You Are Not Done Until You Die What does success mean to you? What makes your life meaningful? And how do you express your deepest values in your everyday life? Ernest Hemingway teaches that growing old should never stop you from showing up through his tale, […]

2 years ago

Journal Article

Making the Most of In-Person Team Gatherings

You’ve been looking forward to this for a long time: Having your entire team in person (!) gathered in one place. How do you make the most of people’s time together? Remote and hybrid work arrangements have become a central aspect of many workplaces. Certainly, some organizations are eager to have everyone back in the […]

2 years ago

Journal Article

Coaching for Emotional Intelligence

Does your technically proficient employee fall short on people skills? Coaching can help. Psychologist Daniel Goleman coined the term “emotional intelligence.” Your “emotional quotient,” or EQ, may be more consequential to your success and happiness in life than your IQ. A person can be intellectually brilliant yet their emotional shortcomings can interfere with their relationships […]