Working with Emotional Intelligence

a time with no guarantees of job security, when the very concept of a "job" is rapidly being replaced by "portable skills," these are prime qualities that make and keep us employable

As Freud observed, "Mortals can keep no secret. If their lips are silent, they gossip with their fingertips; betrayal forces its way through every pore."

Mistakes are treasures

If there is any competence these times call for, it is adaptability.

People learn a new skill more effectively if they have repeated chances to practice it over an extended period of time than if they have the same amount of practice lumped into a single, intensive session.

When the mind is calm, working memory functions at its best. But when there is an emergency, the brain shifts into a self-protective mode, stealing resources from working memory and shunting them to other brain sites in order to keep the senses hyperalert—a mental stance tailored to survival.

If there is any competence these times call for, it is adaptability.

For the stars, excellence and pleasure in work are one and the same.

As poet Charles Bukowski put it, "It's not the big things that send us to the madhouse, not the loss of a love, but the shoelace that breaks when there's no time left."

Our emotional intelligencedetermines our potential for learning the practical skills that are based on its five elements: self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, empathy, and adeptness in relationships.