The EQ Edge

Book excerpt: REVISED AND UPDAT ED WITH NEW RESEARCH INTO EQ AND PERSONAL AND CAREER SUCCESS What is the formula for success at your job? As a spouse? A parent? A Little League baseball coach or behind the bench of a minor hockey team? What does it take to get ahead? To separate yourself from the competition? To lead a less stressful and happier existence? To be fulfilled in personal and professional pursuits? What is the most important dynamic of your makeup? Is it your A) intelligence quotient? or B) emotional quotient? If you picked "A", you are partly correct. Your intelligence quotient can be a predictor of things such as academic achievement. But your IQ is fixed and unchangeable. The real key to personal and professional growth is your emotional intelligence quotient, which you can nurture and develop by learning more about EQ from the international bestseller The EQ Edge. Authors Steven J. Stein and Howard E. Book show you how the dynamic of emotional intelligence works. By understanding EQ, you can build more meaningful relationships, boost your confidence and optimism, and respond to challenges with enthusiasm-all of which are essential ingredients of success. The EQ Edge offers fascinating-and sometimes surprising-insights into what it takes to be a top law-enforcement officer, lawyer, school principal, student, doctor, dentist or CEO. You will learn what the top EQ factors are across many different kinds of jobs, from business managers and customer service representatives to HR professionals and public servants. The EQ Edge will help you determine which personnel are the right fit for job opportunities and who among your staff are the most promising leaders and drivers of your business. And because all of us have other roles-parent, spouse, caregiver to aging parents, neighbor, friend-The EQ Edge also describes how everyone can be more successful in these relationships. "Finally, a practical and usable guide to what emotional intelligence is all about. This book peels the onion on what EQ really is and teaches the reader to assess their own EQ and how to increase it. This is the holy grail for career success."—Michael Feiner, Professor, Columbia Graduate School of Business and author of The Feiner Points of Leadership