Best Books on Emotional Intelligence (List)

This blog presents some of the best books on emotional intelligence.

The term emotional intelligence was introduced by Peter Salovey and John Mayer and was given hype by Daniel Goleman in 1996 in his book ‘Emotional intelligence’.

Let’s start the blog with the basic definition of emotional intelligence and then we will move on to some of the best books on emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence 

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of an individual to identify, understand, and manage his emotions.

It is the tendency to recognize, understand, and regulate the emotions of other people.

According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer, emotional intelligence is referred to as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior”.

As a matter of fact, emotional intelligence reference to being aware that an individual’s emotions affect his behavior and influence other people, either in a positive or negative way.

It means learning how to manage one’s own emotions and other person’s emotions especially in situations of constraints.

When Would I Need to Manage my Emotional Intelligence? 

Emotional intelligence needs to be managed while 

• giving feedback to others
• receiving feedback from others
• complying with time limits
• confronting and managing problems in relationships
• experiencing a lack of resources
• dealing with change
• facing adversities or non-success

Best Books on Emotional Intelligence 

A number of books had been written on emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a very interesting skill that helps individuals not only in recognition of emotions but also aid them in regulating their own and other’s emotions.

The following are some of the best books on emotional intelligence.

A little description is mentioned with each book to help you select the best book to read about emotional intelligence. 

Also, after reading the books listed below, you might enjoy reading I survived books.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

As we discussed earlier, Daniel Goleman was the first person to publicize emotional intelligence through his book ” emotional intelligence”.

His book was among the international bestsellers.

Since this book was not the first publication of Daniel Goleman, this book has been recognized as the one who gave fame to the concept of emotional intelligence. 

Daniel Goleman took on a professional point of view in his book and emphasized that cognitive intelligence or intelligence quotient (IQ), is not the only predictor of workplace success but emotional intelligence is an equally significant non-cognitive skill determining the workplace success.

Daniel Goleman defined emotional intelligence as a ” set of skills” instead of a personality trait.

According to him, this set of skills encloses self-motivation, social abilities, understanding, and self-mastery in individuals.

This book has been written with a business point of view and offers organizational implications for both, the employees and the leader of the business.

This book also helps readers determine how emotional intelligence can help them deal better with their adversities, desires, and uncomfortable emotions.

This book is easily accessible from the internet. You can access this book from the Amazon Store by clicking here.

This book is present both as an ebook and an audiobook.

Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence

This book was first published in 2001. The book focuses on leadership development.

Although the author has done the majority of his work on ‘styles of leadership’, this book mentions apposite inferences for the individuals who are employees or leaders in businesses.

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee explained the six styles of leadership in their own way with respect to their own experience.

Each of the six leadership styles applies in different situations. These six leadership styles include: 

• Visionary style
• Affiliative style
• Democratic style
• Coaching style
• Commanding style
• Pacesetting style

People might be interested in acknowledging the theory behind emotional intelligence.

The good news is that this book explains that theory in light of researches.

The authors of this book took the help of empirical evidence to describe the association between emotional intelligence (specifically self-awareness and empathy)and leadership specific behaviors.

However, this book is not unduly academic and it is relatively very easy to read.

The author, Richard Boyatzis, presented his own theory, named as the ‘theory of self-directed learning’ (Boyatzis, 1999), in this book to help individuals grow and succeed professionally.

The individuals who are leaders running their businesses or anyhow have some experience in leadership will truly enjoy reading this book.

They would learn the ways in which emotional intelligence can be applied in business and the ways in which already present skills can be polished.

This book also gives practical implications on how emotionally intelligent organizations can be built.

This book is easily accessible on the internet.

You can access this book as an audiobook too, from the Amazon store by clicking here.

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 HBR Guide to Emotional Intelligence

HBR Guide to emotional intelligence is another interesting book based on emotional intelligence.

HBR is the acronym used for the Harvard Business Review guide.

As the name tells, this book is a guide for individuals to learn to apply emotional intelligence in running businesses.

This book takes about 5 hours to read. It explains the aspects of emotional intelligence and how they influence work in organizations.

This book explains the importance of skills including perceiving emotions, awareness about emotions, and emotional regulation, and the ways in which we can enhance these skills.

In addition to this, the HBR Guide to emotional intelligence audiobook explains how individuals can identify their personal emotional intelligence including both strengths and weaknesses, develop emotional intelligence in their team members, cope with difficulties in a healthy way, and inspire people around them.

The HBR Guide to emotional intelligence can be accessed both in a book or as an audiobook.

You can visit this site for accessing the content of the HBR Guide to emotional intelligence.

The EQ Edge 

The book, the EQ edge, is written by Steven Stein Howard Book.

Interesting information about how an individual can become a great policeman, a lawyer, school, student, principal, doctor, dentist, or CEO.

The book explains the most essential in emotional intelligence components that are required in various professional fields or careers for people ranging from employees to leaders and customers to HR managers.

You can access this book from the Amazon store by clicking here. 

The Language of Emotional Intelligence: The Five Essential Tools for Building Powerful and Effective Relationships: 

The book, The Language of Emotional Intelligence: The Five Essential Tools for Building Powerful and Effective Relationships, mentions the five important tools required for developing healthy, strong, effective relationships.

The author of this book, Jeanne Segal, explains the five basic tools of emotional intelligence which can be used to make communication more effective, help in the understanding of nonverbal communication efficiently, and identify conflicts in relationships before they get worse.

It is a very informative guide to learn how to apply emotional intelligence to develop good relationships with others.

Visit this page to access this book from the Amazon store. 

Emotional Judo: Communication Skills to Handle Difficult Conversations and Boost Emotional Intelligence

The book, Emotional Judo: Communication Skills to Handle Difficult Conversations and Boost Emotional Intelligence is written by Tim Higgs and it explains the set of communication tools that an individual requires to manage his own emotions and other people’s emotions during complex conversations.

These set of tools help individuals to acknowledge what to say in which situations.

Furthermore, the book mentions case studies based on real-life to give evidence on how practicing emotional Judo can help manage adversities in personal or professional life.

This book is among the best sellers on the Amazon Store.

You can access this book from the Kindle on Amazon store or simply buy it from Amazon.

Visit this page to get this book.

Is emotional intelligence a good book?

Emotional intelligence is among the best seller books emotional intelligence.

This book has been written by Daniel Goleman and is considered as the book that gave fame to the concept of emotional intelligence.

The majority of the leaders consider this work as one of the best books on emotional intelligence.

So yes it is a good book to read.

What are the five basic competencies of emotional intelligence?

In view of Daniel Goleman, the person who publicized the concept of emotional intelligence through his book, there are 5 basic competencies of emotional intelligence.

These include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

How can I become emotionally intelligent?

There are various ways in which emotional intelligence can be improved.

Some effective ways of becoming emotional intelligence include observing ways in which you behave with others, focusing on the environment, doing self-evaluation, examining your reactions to stressful situations for unpleasant events, take responsibility for your actions, and acknowledging how your actions influence other people.

Why is emotional intelligence better than IQ?

Emotional intelligence is better than intelligence quotient.

This is because emotional intelligence defines an individual’s ability to manage his feeling, emotions, and relationships.

Hence, emotional intelligence is associated with good social skills.

Therefore only having intelligence quotient isn’t enough, it is important to develop emotional intelligence as well.

Why does EQ Matter More Than IQ?

Emotional quotient matter more than intelligence quotient because being intelligent isn’t enough, one needs to learn how to react in a social environment and manage emotions effectively, to become successful.

For example, one might need intelligence to become an engineer but to become the leader of Engineers, it is important to have emotional quotient.

What is being emotionally intelligent?

Being emotionally intelligent means do to be able to recognize, understand, and manage, one’s own emotions as well as other people’s emotions effectively.

This helps in relieving stress, communicating effectively, understanding others, confronting and dealing with adversities, developing healthy relationships, succeeding in professional life, and so forth.

This blog explained in detail the concept of emotional intelligence and how it became popular through the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book on emotional intelligence.

The blog presented you with some of the best books on emotional intelligence.

These books were selected from a variety of bestsellers and popular books on emotional intelligence.

Each book is accompanied by a little description of it to help you select the best book on emotional intelligence according to your interest.

We hope this blog will help you choose the best book to read on emotional intelligence.

If you have any queries or questions regarding this blog, let us know through your comments.

We will be glad to assist you in this regard.

References 

What Is Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

Emotional intelligence – Wikipedia

26 Best Emotional Intelligence Books (Reviews + Summaries) by  Catherine Moore (2020)

The 20 Best Emotional Intelligence Books to Read Before 30

If You’re Going to Read Books on Emotional Intelligence, Please Start With These 12

Harward Business Review Store

Amazon.com

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