Of all the Public Relations skills, how importantly do you rate connecting with people?
I’m a great advocate of the concept of Emotional Intelligence, as proposed by Daniel Goleman way back in 1995. It’s an oldie, but a goodie and it’s one of a few texts I refer back to often (Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great‘ and Michael Porter’s ‘Creating Shared Value’ are others).
As summarised in Wikipedia, “Emotional intelligence or Emotional Quotient is the ability of individuals to recognize their own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.
“Studies have shown that people with high EI have greater mental health, exemplary job performance, and more potent leadership skills.”
Love it.
Public Relations: an affair of the heart?
We are all sales people to some extent, selling our beliefs by arguing or debating at home, at work, with friends. But I think EI is particularly relevant to all leaders, marketers, public relations experts, sales folk and journalists; we can’t be successful until we achieve an emotional connection with our audience.
Goleman pioneered a lot of thinking on this 20 years ago, still applicable today and attempted to wrap some science around it, “…when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels.”
Food for thought?
For more reading on this: Four Fundamentals of a Good Relationship: Care-Listen-Create-Delight
