A quote from the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
“Competencies come in clusters. For top performance a person must master a mix of competencies, not just one or two David McClelland found that stars are not just talented in initiative or influence — they have strengths across the board, including competencies from each of the five emotional intelligence areas: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy ad social skills.

Only when they reach a critical mass from the full spectrum do they emerge as outstanding — something akin to a chemical reaction achieving the moment of catalysis. McClelland call this critical mass the “tipping point”.

Once you reach the tipping point, the probability of your performance being outstanding shoots up. Weakness in these competencies were often fatal flaws. In Europe, for example, those who lacked strengths in the key competencies had outstanding performance only in 13% of the time, in Asia just 11%, and in America 20%.

The emotional competencies that most often led to this level of success were:

— Initiative, achievement drive & adaptability

— Influence, team leadership & political awareness

— Empathy, self-confidence & developing others.”

I suggest choosing two or three of these competencies from the above list. How would you assess yourself within these categories? How would you know? How would others assess you? How can you find out?

What steps would you take to improve in these two or three areas, and how would you know if you improved?

Toward the end of Goleman’s book, Working with Emotional Intelligence is a chapter entitled The Billion Dollar Mistake. Goleman cites the number of organizations/companies that adopted EI training programs and the vast number that failed. Though EI had proved its importance in leadership success, the question was how to most effectively teach EI. To effectively teach EI, individuals need to be instructed in the art and practice of mindfulness and meditation. Developing awareness and a deeper understanding of emotions cannot be learned merely by reading and study.

What to do:
– Clarify your intentions, as much as possible – choose two or three competencies that you want to work on.
– Begin a regular meditation and mindfulness practice – find a teacher, group, or class
– Experiment with ways of tracking your growth in these areas – self-assessment and feedback from others.