The Emotionally Intelligent Office

  • Work

A book outlining 20 key emotional skills for the workplace

Modern businesses place huge emphasis on technical training, yet a lot of what determines the success or failure of an organisation has nothing to do with the traditional 'hard' skills taught at business school, but rather the sophisticated 'soft' skills that are key to emotional maturity. 

Product description

Modern businesses place huge emphasis on technical training, yet a lot of what determines the success or failure of an organisation has nothing to do with the traditional ‘hard’ skills taught at business school, but rather the sophisticated ‘soft’ skills that are key to emotional maturity.

The Emotionally Intelligent Office introduces us to twenty core emotional skills that can help businesses and individuals to flourish. They range from giving and receiving honest feedback and accepting that it’s OK to fail, to addressing jealousies and insecurities within teams. We learn about how our childhoods continue to have an often unhelpful impact on how we deal with colleagues and the best ways we might speak so that others will listen.

This book is informed by the practical work that the Business division of The School of Life carries out, endeavouring to change the culture within organisations around the world by teaching teams the art of emotional intelligence.

Skills Include:

  • Adaptability
  • Confidence
  • Decisiveness
  • Calm
  • Creativity
  • Diplomacy
  • Eloquence
  • Innovation
  • Self-Awareness
  • Leadership
  • Playfulness
  • Resilience
Extracts From the Book:
  • On Charm – ‘A central reason why salesmanship often goes wrong is due to a feeling that the only way to prove acceptable to a buyer is through exaggeration. In all acts of successful selling, what matters is an honest foregrounding of a thing’s actual virtues, and a confidence that these will prove enough.’
  • On Effectiveness – ‘The potential of daydreaming isn’t recognised by societies obsessed with superficial productivity. Nonetheless, some of our greatest insights come when we stop trying to be purposeful and instead respect the creative potential of reverie.’
  • On Purpose – ‘Reminding ourselves of the necessary slowness of work counteracts an unfortunate side effect of an unintentional kindness on the part of the business: concealing from the user the labour that went into creating the goods and services we enjoy.’
  • On Supportiveness – ‘The wise office does not make the error of supposing that there could ever be a psychologically ‘normal’ human being or lasting, complete harmony across all departments. A good company reveres more than just the strengths of its people; it is ready to remember, and make accomodations for, all their peculiarities of spirit.’

About The School of Life for Business

People are the most expensive, complex, and yet most valuable asset of any company. But all too often, they are the least understood.

At The School of Life, we believe that emotional maturity is the key to better employee performance and engagement. Our service is built on years of experience working with individuals and organisations to develop emotional intelligence.

We work with businesses to help employees function better together – to form more engaged teams, be more productive, dynamic, and work together in more innovative and entrepreneurial ways.

 

Paperback book | 183 pages | 175mm x 125mm x 15mm | Colour photographs