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Emotional intelligence

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by maryweilage

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This week's Application Developer Management e-newsletter discusses the impact emotional intelligence can have on your business interactions. How large of a role do you believe emotional intelligence plays in your work environment? Do you think it's beneficial for the IT industry to place more of an emphasis on soft skills? Share your comments about emotional intelligence.

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4 replies

by bucky kaufman (mcsd)

Usually, when someone uses the term "soft skills", it's not in a non-productive context. I hear folks chastised for not having them, but I never hear someone say that so-and-so has them - or even what they are.

Usage of the phrase, to me, is a great big red flag - warning me that the user doesn't work well with someone who isn't extremely sensitive to their feelings.

I did a 3-month job for an ad agency in South Texas. I never took up their offers to go out drinking, and eventually the personal relationships turned sour - even though the work was good.

Was it a soft-skill failing on my part for not drinking with them, or on their part for taking offense?

by kermitl

I agree with author but keep a balance. I work for a highly adept at 'soft skills' manager that takes 'emotional intelligence' to a different dimension. Not good!

by gudgeon

Our entire company has decided to add soft skills as a contributing factor to overall performance ratings. The IT division, rife with pasty-skinned techno-geeks has used the category to single out people who are not liked.

I have seen preformance reviews significantly down graded because the geeks did not get along with the non-geeks. This is a nightmare. The people who traditioanlly prefer to be alone are down-rating others who do not share those values.

I have also seen this rating significantly affect new employees who do a wonderful job but cannot break the ranks of the old-boy network. In the past, we needed federal legislation to protect people and help them through these barriers. Now all of that has been reversed by the introduction of soft-skills assessments. I wonder if Susan B. Anthony would have received low soft-skill assessments from the men around her.

by maryweilage

Note from the editor: I received the following comments from a reader via e-mail.

"I think we as managers should spend more time on understanding EI. I for one have seen projects both fail and succeed based on how the Project Manager handled emotional responses.

I thought that this was an outstanding article done by Scott. Short but to the point."

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