5 Books on Improving Emotional Intelligence for New Managers
We’ve moved on from the era when a person’s IQ was considered critical to professional success. Its replacement? Emotional intelligence, or EQ.
Emotional Intelligence is defined by Mental Health America as the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our feelings — and the feelings of those around us. It can help team leaders strengthen their interpersonal and communication skills, as well as empower a healthy work environment.
If you’re still not convinced that EQ is important in leadership, let’s look at some stats:
According to the Harvard Business Review, 71 percent of employers rate emotional intelligence as more important than technical skills when hiring.
Research from the Centre for Creative Leadership showed that managers who showed empathy (related to Emotional Intelligence) to their team were viewed as better performers.
Employees who are supervised by a highly engaged manager are 59 percent more likely to be engaged than those supervised by an actively disengaged manager.
If the concept feels daunting, too “soft”, or if you’re new to a leadership or management role and you don’t know how best to apply it to your work, the following five books are a great place to begin the process of improving your emotional intelligence, increase your workplace resilience, and take further steps toward becoming an excellent leader.
1. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
The seminal work on emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman’s 1995 New York Times bestselling book redefines what it means to be smart. Emotional intelligence, he states, is just as important to professional success and leadership as hard skillsets.
Goleman draws from neuroscience and psychology to offer insight into our emotional and rational brains, and highlights key factors: self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy. Goleman also explores how to strengthen our emotional intelligence throughout our lives.
In 2013, Goleman also teamed up with two fellow authorities on emotional intelligence to publish Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, which explores how emotional intelligence relates to six common workplace leadership typologies.
2. Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-Being and Success by Marc Brackett
Marc Brackett, the founding director at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, summarizes his career as an emotion scientist in Permission to Feel. In this book, he develops a blueprint for understanding our emotions and applying them in helpful ways to our lives, jobs, and relationships.
The ability to identify emotions — both our own, and others around us — is a critical first step in making clear and rational leadership decisions in the workplace. It also teaches us the importance of leading with empathy at work.
3. The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elain N. Aron
Drawing from her background in clinical psychology, Elaine Aron’s book helps with recognizing how sensitivity can manifest, and how to make the most of it. For leaders who identify as highly sensitive, or those prone to overwhelm, this book is particularly helpful in providing strategies for setting boundaries and using sensitivity as a leadership strength.
Another excellent (and reflexive) skill for managers looking to get better at navigating fast-paced or high-stress environments is resilience. Resilient leaders are adept at adapting to changing circumstances, responding constructively to feedback, and committing to continuous learning.
4. Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change by Nicole Vignola
Nicole Vignola’s workbook provides practical tools to help readers reframe negative thinking, manage stress, and develop healthier mental habits. If you learn by doing, the neuroscience-backed exercises in Rewire will help you develop your emotional intelligence page by page.
5. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown
A household name for her life’s work on courage and resilience, Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead examines how leaders and change makers make the world a better place by taking accountability, exercising curiosity, and developing potential in those around them.
Dare to Lead gives new managers and leaders the tools to have honest and compassionate conversations, and nurture psychologically safe teams through courage and connections.
Emotional intelligence is a daily practice, not a destination
Emotional intelligence is not a set destination. The practice of strengthening your own, and fostering your team’s, is ongoing, but investing time in reading and applying lessons from these books will make you a more confident, more self-aware and a more people-focused leader. Start with a book that resonates the most, and go from there.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your leadership journey, or want to explore the applications of emotional intelligence in management further, take a look at our 1:1 coaching offerings.