"As we Americans plan our strategy for Iraq, let's show more emotional intelligence." This is the subtitle of Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times) article "Cut and Walk" published December 5, 2006. It is available HERE if you are a subscriber, which I am not.
The blogs are hastening to address this comment and article.
On NewsBusters: Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias, Mark Finkelstein says Kristof's column reads like "something that might have been written by warm 'n fuzzy Stuart Smalley, the SNL character Al Franken hilariously immortalized before deciding he had serious things to say. "
I agree with one of the commentators to Finkelstein's blog - I'm not going to pay to read the article, which is pay-per-view. But I want to comment on the comments, in the defense of Emotional Intelligence. It should not in any way be linked to Stuart Smalley. Though it's a common misconception, to segue into that, no matter what Kristof said, is misleading.
It is a common misconception, by those who have not studied the field of Emotional Intelligence that it's about "touchy feely."
What's touchy-feely about a manager losing his temper, slugging an employee and bringing on a lawsuit?
What's Stuart Smalley about a CEO being so depressed about his divorce that he's out drinking all night and carousing, and unable to pay attention to the bottom-line?
Is there something "weak" about a person who is so out of touch with their gut feeling that they continually make precisely the wrong move in every sensitive situation?
Is there something to laugh about when a nuclear engineer whose IQ is 170 is so out-of-touch with the real world, she fails to notice a hiss and change in temperature that would have warned her to get everyone out before the place blew up? (I coached a consultant in the UK who works with people who work in dangerous fields to get them in touch with their EQ - the only thing that can keep them safe. )
And there's nothing group-hug about getting someone under control who can't control the feeling of lust and thereby jeopardizes your corporation with his continual sexual harassment, about which he is "clueless."
Again, I don't know how Kristof applied Emotional Intelligence in re: Iraq, but I don't like to see the field of Emotional Intelligence cast in this sort of disparaging light.
Note that I did not read Kristof's article and so I do not critique it. If you haven't studied Emotional Intelligence, should you be critiqueing it? There's a distinction between criticizing the field of Emotional Intelligence, and criticizing how Kristop uses the term and what he writes in his article.
And knowing that difference if part of what Emotional Intelligence is all about.
Here 's a place where you can read about it: www.susandunn.cc .
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Read my article on BuildYourOwnBusiness - "How Managers Use Emotional Intelligence Like Map Coordinates".
Art used by permission, www.claudiafernety.com .
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