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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
I had to pick this up for a project at uni and I have to admit it wasn't a book I was very willing to read, but it turned out to be an easy read with some decent material! I'm no expert in this field, but the author of this book does seem to have some interesting ideas about becoming more aware of both yourself and your environment.
All in all I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. ;)
All in all I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. ;)
informative
This book came highly recommended by a number of very famous and influential people. Heck, even the Dalai Lama gave this book a recommendation. So perhaps it is surprising that I was so disappointed in it. The first source of my disappointment is that the authors do not honestly treat emotional intelligence as it actually is. Although emotional intelligence became a trendy management fad in Corporate America about 20 years ago, the concept of emotional intelligence goes back much further, to psychological research in the 1960s. Back then emotional intelligence was investigated as an aspect of the human psyche that has a very pronounced dark side. People with high degrees of emotional intelligence can be scammers, con artists and manipulators. It is fairly certain that Adolf Hitler had a very high degree of emotional intelligence. So when the authors state that people with high degrees of emotional intelligence tend to be more successful than those who don't, are they suggesting that corporations should encourage their staffs to become a collection of little Hitlers? Certainly not. But this is the problem when psychologists encourage people to adopt a certain psychological status rather than adopting such things as virtue and competence. We must remember that psychologists tell us that Corporate c-suites have a higher representation of psychopaths and sociopaths than does society at large. Clearly anti-social psychological conditions can enable their sufferers to succeed in business, but that doesn't mean that we should encourage anti-social psychological conditions if we want to have a non-dysfunctional society.
This book is around 250 pages, but it is in fact little more than a pamphlet. The pages are very short and each chapter takes up one to four of those tiny pages. They are like little "Dear Abby" columns in the newspaper, only the newspaper columns are more well written than these chapters. They offer the reader very simplistic advice about why it is important to listen to people, why we should not have temper tantrums at work and why we should not be insulting and dismissive of others. Most of us learn these things in Kindergarten, but if this advice is needed for managers in modern organizations, then this of itself is a major problem.
My analysis here is largely negative, but for those who have no idea of emotional intelligence, this book is a good introduction. It is also important to remember that social skills and basic kindness can still score points for people in their careers. For this reason I would recommend this book in some limited circumstances.
This book is around 250 pages, but it is in fact little more than a pamphlet. The pages are very short and each chapter takes up one to four of those tiny pages. They are like little "Dear Abby" columns in the newspaper, only the newspaper columns are more well written than these chapters. They offer the reader very simplistic advice about why it is important to listen to people, why we should not have temper tantrums at work and why we should not be insulting and dismissive of others. Most of us learn these things in Kindergarten, but if this advice is needed for managers in modern organizations, then this of itself is a major problem.
My analysis here is largely negative, but for those who have no idea of emotional intelligence, this book is a good introduction. It is also important to remember that social skills and basic kindness can still score points for people in their careers. For this reason I would recommend this book in some limited circumstances.
I definitely spent more time reading this than normal. It's up there with Crucial Conversations as far as small books that pack a punch. It's crammed with valuable information and should probably be read repeatedly. Highly Recommended!
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book was so bad don't waste your time. Statistics are quoted without evidence. Paragraphs are awkwardly repeated in block quotes. The book feels like a cash grab.
medium-paced
Had this book lying around the house so picked it up and read it. The book can basically be summarized as 'Be mindful of yourself and others'. It borrows heavily from known mindfulness practices, and is probably best used as a quick refresher of those.