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A more accurate title for this article would be "Emotional intelligence doesn't correlate to increased measurable performance (in dollars and cents)." Having s
by RankingMember 12y ago
A more accurate title for this article would be "Emotional intelligence doesn't correlate to increased measurable performance (in dollars and cents)."
Having someone who's productive in the metric of work throughput doesn't necessarily a desirable employee make.
Particularly, I take issue with his apparent notion that emotional intelligence is only applicable in certain fields:
"This isn’t to say that emotional intelligence is useless. It's relevant to performance in jobs where you have to deal with emotions every day, like sales, real estate, and counseling. If you’re selling a house or helping people cope with tragedies, it’s very useful to know what they’re feeling and respond appropriately. But in jobs that lack these emotional demands—like engineering, accounting, or science[...]"
Unless this employee is working for themselves in the dark vacuum of space, they're going to need to talk to people, and anyone who's worked with someone with zero emotional intelligence can tell you what a drag that can be.
- autistsadvocate 12y ago> Particularly, I take issue with his apparent notion that emotional intelligence is only applicable in certain fields Others may take issue with the notion that there are no fields for which one with less emotional intelligence is not universally inferior. > anyone who's worked with someone with zero emotional intelligence can tell you what a drag that can be. Do not conflate "zero emotional intelligence" (i.e. the clueless, innocently blunt) for "destructive personality" (i.e. the arrogant, egotistical, aggressive, confrontational etc.)
- RankingMember 12y agoJust so it's clear, my post isn't picking on people on the autism spectrum any more than the universe is picking on me by making my skin deficient in melanin such that I sunburn easily. My opinion is that emotional intelligence is something that can be learned. Some people will struggle more than others, but we all have our challenges to overcome.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- aninhumer 12y agoI know some autistic people who are actually far better at it, probably because they've had to actually learn it, instead of relying on instinct.
- chongli 12y agoDo not conflate "zero emotional intelligence" (i.e. the clueless, innocently blunt) for "destructive personality" (i.e. the arrogant, egotistical, aggressive, confrontational etc.) Yeah. I'd even go so far as to say that the worst offenders are often very high on the emotional intelligence scale. They're deceptive, manipulative, narcissistic psychopaths like Ted Bundy or Frank Underwood (of House of Cards fame).
- adamors 12y ago> Unless this employee is working for themselves in the dark vacuum of space, they're going to need to talk to people, and anyone who's worked with someone with zero emotional intelligence can tell you what a drag that can be. I couldn't agree more, I find it really cynical and disgusting that all of his post was just about the bottom line. I'd rather work with people who have emotional intelligence than with someone who has the social skills of a houseplant.
- 9diov 12y agoYou are confusing "emotional intelligence" with "social skills", two very different things.
- threatofrain 12y agoBut unless emotional abilities and cognitive abilities are negatively correlated, it's not as though selecting for cognitive abilities would make you any more or less likely to have a coworker that demands extra emotional work. It just means you won't be extra-lucky in finding coworkers of high emotional ability. Personally, I think that focusing on work performance is a refreshing wind against so much folk wisdom hiring. I'm also not at all surprised that someone was unable to unseat intelligence as a predictor of work performance. That predictor has been solidly established as powerful across a general array of work (better than past relevant work experience!), and scientists are ever on the hunt for a better employment sieve.
- mirchibajji 12y agoI don't have access to the full text of the paper that quote from the article refers, but I gather from the abstract that the idea of classifying high/low EI jobs is from the paper, not the OP. Perhaps full text of the paper has more details on how they classified the jobs. Overall, I find it ironic that most people who say they care about EI are the ones who don't prefer to be accommodating when interacting with others with seemingly lower EI.