How to Cultivate "EQ";

What is the most valuable contribution employees make to their companies, knowledge or judgment? I say judgment. Knowledge, no matter how broad, is useless until it is applied. And application takes judgment, which involves something of a sixth sense — a high performance of the mind.

This raises interesting questions about the best training for today's business people. As Daniel Goleman suggests in his new book, Emotional Intelligence, the latest scientific findings seem to indicate that intelligent but inflexible people don't have the right stuff in an age when the adaptive ability is the key to survival.

In a recent cover story, Time magazine sorted through the current thinking on intelligence and reported, "New brain research suggests that emotions, not IQ, may be the true measure of human intelligence." The basic significance of the emotional intelligence that Time called "EQ" was suggested by management expert Karen Boylston: "Customers are telling businesses, 'I don't care if every member of your staff graduated from Harvard. I will take my business and go where I am understood and treated with respect.'"

If the evolutionary pressures of the marketplace are making EQ, not IQ, the hot ticket for business success, it seems likely that individuals will want to know how to cultivate it. I have a modest proposal: Embrace a highly personal practice aimed at improving these four adaptive skills:

Raising consciousness. I think of this as thinking differently on purpose. It's about noticing what you are feeling and thinking and escaping the conditioned confines of your past. Raise your consciousness by catching yourself in the act of thinking as often as possible. Routinely take note of your emotions and ask if you're facing facts or avoiding them.

Using imagery. This is what you see Olympic ski racers doing before entering the starting gate. With their eyes closed and bodies swaying, they run the course in their minds first, which improves their performance. You can do the same by setting aside time each day to dream with passion about what you want to achieve.

Considering and reconsidering events to choose the most creative response to them. When a Greek philosopher said 2,000 years ago that it isn't events that matter but our opinion of them, this is what he was talking about. Every time something important happens, assign as many interpretations to it as possible, even crazy ones. Then go with the interpretation most supportive of your dreams.

Integrating the perspectives of others. Brain research shows that our view of the world is limited by our genes and the experiences we've had. Learning to incorporate the useful perspectives of others is nothing less than a form of enlarging your senses. The next time someone interprets something differently from you — say, a controversial political event — pause to reflect on the role of life experience and consider it a gift of perception.

The force of habit — literally the established wiring of your brain — will pull you away from practicing these skills. Keep at it, however, because they are based on what we're learning about the mechanisms of the mind.

Within the first six months of life the human brain doubles in capacity; it doubles again by age four and then grows rapidly until we reach sexual maturity. The body has about a hundred billion nerve cells, and every experience triggers a brain response that literally shapes our senses. The mind, we now know, is not confined to the brain but is distributed throughout the body's universe of cells. Yes, we do think with our hearts, brains, muscles, blood and bones.

During a single crucial three-week period during our teenage years, chemical activity in the brain is cut in half. That done, we are "biologically wired" with what one of the nation's leading brain researchers calls our own "world view". He says it is impossible for any two people to see the world exactly alike. So unique is the personal experience that people would understand the world differently.

However, it is not only possible to change your world view, he says, it's actually easier than overcoming a drug habit. But you need a discipline for doing it. Hence, the method recommended here.

No, it's not a curriculum in the sense that an MBA is. But the latest research seems to imply that without the software of emotional maturity and self-knowledge, the hardware of academic training alone is worth less and less.

    如何培育“情商”

    员工对公司最有价值的贡献是什么，是知识还是判断力？ 我说是判断力。不管知识面有多宽，如果得不到应用，那就毫无用处。 而知识的应用需要判断力，判断力涉及某种第六感觉——是思维的高度运用。
    这就提出了现今关于企业界人士最佳培训课程的有趣问题。 正如丹尼尔·戈尔曼在他的新书《情感智能》中所说，最新的科研结果似乎表明，在一个适应能力是生存关键的年代，聪明但缺乏灵活性的人并不具备这种适应的才能。
    《时代周刊》最近的封面故事列举了关于智能的一些流行看法，报道说，"新的人脑研究表明，情感，而不是智商，可能是衡量人的智能的真正尺度。" 《时代周刊》称之为"情商"的情感智能的根本意义，在企业管理专家凯伦·波尔斯顿的话中可见一斑： "顾客对企业说‘我可不在乎你的每个员工是否都毕业于哈佛， 我只愿与能理解我、尊重我的企业打交道。’"
    如果说市场的进化发展所造成的压力使得情商，而不是智商，成为企业走向成功的通行证，那么，人们似乎很可能希望懂得如何培养情商。 我有个小小的建议：积极进行自我训练，努力提高以下四项适应性技能：
    提高意识程度。我把这看作是思考中有目的的独辟蹊径。 这是指注意自己感受到什么，在想什么，摆脱掉往日带给自己的种种限制。 尽可能多地注意到思考时的自己，以此来提高意识程度。 要习惯性地注意自己的情感，问问自己是在面对事实还是逃避事实。
    利用意象。这就是奥林匹克滑雪赛手在进入起跑门之前所做的。 他们闭上眼，摆动身体，在头脑中先把整个滑雪道跑一遍，这能提高他们在实际比赛中的表现。 我们也可以这样做，每天留出时间来带着激情想像一番自己想要获得的成就。
    反复考虑各种事件，并对它们做出最富创意的反应。 2,000年前的一位希腊哲学家说过，重要的不是事件本身，而是我们对事件的看法，他说的正是此意。 每当发生重要事情时，要尽可能多方面地看问题，甚至作超乎寻常的理解， 然后照着最有利于自己理想的那种理解去做。
    综合考虑他人的看法。 大脑研究表明，人们对外界的看法受到遗传基因及个人经历的局限。 学会吸纳他人有用的观点就等于是一种扩大自己的见识的方式。 下次如果有人对某件事与你有不同的看法，比如某个有争议的政治事件，停下来想想这其实是生活阅历使然，应把它看作一种感知能力的馈赠。
    习惯的力量——严格说就是头脑里已建立的思维方式——会妨碍你操练这些技能。 然而要坚持下去，因为它们是以对思维机制的认识为基础的。
    人脑的容量在生命开始的最初六周增长了一倍，到四岁时又增长一倍，其后大脑的容量迅速发展直到性成熟为止。 人体有大约1,000亿个神经细胞，每一次经历都会激发脑部的反应，而这种反应实际上影响着我们的感知。 我们现在知道，思想活动并不局限在脑部，而是遍布全身范围的细胞中。 是的，我们的确是在用心、用脑、用肌肉、用血液和骨骼来思考。
    我们的青少年阶段有一个为期三周的关键时期，此时脑部的化学反应活动一分为二。 完成了这一变化，正如国内一位重要的大脑研究人员所说，我们"对外界的看法"就"在生理上定型了"。 他说任何两个人都不可能对外界有完全一样的看法。 个人的体验都是独一无二的，以至人们对外界的理解都不相同。
    然而，他说，人们对外界的看法不仅有可能改变，而且实际上这比克服毒瘾要容易。 但是，要想做到这一点需要训练。 因此我们推荐了上述做法。
    这并不是像MBA那样的课程。 但最新的研究似乎表明，缺乏情感成熟和自我了解这一软件，单靠纯学院式的培训这一硬件是没有用的。