A summary of some core ideas in the best selling book by Harvard Business Review Press.

“What distinguishes good leaders from great ones?” asks Daniel Goldman; “it isn’t IQ or technical skills but emotional intelligence.”

Self-awareness:

Self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one's character and feelings and related to your ability to take stock of your situation, strengths, moods, motivations, drivers, etc. Self-awareness is an essential element to emotional intelligence - it's about understanding yourself and having a deep understanding of your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. The hallmarks of a self-aware person are confidence and a realistic self-assessment.

If you are self-aware, you know your particular 9 vulnerabilities, which you can then work around rather than making-believe you are perfect. One common problem in the workplace is that people do not

regularly and honestly self-access. How many times can you admit to yourself that your work is below the company's expectations or that you lack inspiration? Have you ever recognized that you don't know enough about a particular project to work on it or that you may be using a tool the wrong way?

Self-regulation:

It's one thing to be self-aware and another thing entirely to be able to regulate one's excesses at the right time. Self-regulation is merely controlling and taming those biological impulses and habits that are not relevant in the workplace. It is solely the ability to separate your personal feelings from your job. It, however, doesn't mean that one should stop being human.

Self-regulation also means correcting subordinates at work in a calm, appropriate manner even if they have made a huge mistake rather than yelling or flipping over tables. As human beings, it's typical to want to react based on our feelings, but emotional intelligence is about being able to control those impulses when the time and place is just not right.

Motivation:

Motivation is one trait that all leaders and star employees have in common. If you wish to be a highly functioning individual, there has to be something driving you.

Motivation comes in different forms; it could be some noble cause like making the world a better place or impacting human lives with your work. It could also be personal like living up to your reputation for creating exceptional designs, for example, or getting promoted to the next level. It could be contributing to the company's growth or

alignment to the inspiring vision of the company you work for (like most of us here at CleverSMP)

Whatever it is, the fact remains that people who tend to move forward are usually self-motivated.