By Daniel Goleman

Focus, Attention, Climate Change and Emotional Intelligence

I’m delighted to share with you matters close to my heart, ideas that I find stimulating, and some practical tips and leads that you might find useful. At the heart, of course, you’ll find emotional intelligence. But my interests also go far beyond; you’ll get a taste of that range here. PLUS news you can put to use in your life or work – or in both. Please join me each month.

Let’s dive in…

Climate Anxiety

Small wonder climate anxiety seems rampant, what with the constant drumbeat of bad news about the environment: Glaciers melting, permafrost on fire, wildfires and floods all around the world.

And the younger you are, the more strongly you feel it – after all, you’ll be dealing with this catastrophe over the course of your lifetime.

But let’s take a deep breath, and another look.

Anxiety has a purpose.

It makes us pay attention and can motivate us to act (of course if the stress overhwhelms us, we frazzle).

The good news: it’s not too late to slow or even reverse many parts of climate momentum.  While some parts of global warming have a velocity that won’t easily be stopped – for instance, the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas – let’s not underestimate the human capacity for adapting.

Several emotional intelligence capabilities stand out as helpful in facing climate warming: managing our anxiety so we can think more clearly; adapting to new challenges; staying positive; and working together as a team to meet specific challenges.

Two climate experts offer reasons for hope.  Paul Hawken’s new book, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, focuses on ways we can replenish the planet’s ecology, not just lessen the damage we do.  The book offers concrete examples of people already engaged in such replenishment. For instance an update of an ancient technology, biochar, can use farming waste like chicken manure and cook it into material that absorbs carbon and locks it away for years, even centuries.

I admire Paul Hawken’s advice: “Put life at the center of everything you do.”

There are many, many ways to tackle the climate crisis. One of my favorites remains Earthster, a methodology that could tell us the environmental impacts of what we are about to buy. That would let us vote with our dollars for the better alternative – and create a market force nudging companies to lessen their environmental footprints.

And Jane Goodall, known for her pioneering research on primates, has become an advocate for life itself as an environmentalist.  Her new offering, The Book of Hope, gives us several reasons to be optimistic about the future. First, there’s the human capacity for innovation, as Hawkens’ book exemplifies. Then there’s the amazing resilience of nature. The human spirit has proven indomitable in the face of catastrophe.

And finally there’s the power of young people, who will be more motivated and focused on finding solutions than any past generation. As the Dalai Lama likes to say, “Never give up.”

Onward…

A Podcast Episode on Personal Sustainability

Stress can have significant damage to our overall wellbeing including on a physical, mental and spiritual level. But according to research, not only can you find ways to reduce stress through renewal activities, but you can also foster improved wellbeing overall. Tune in to my recent conversation with Richard Boyatzis as we discuss the science behind renewal as well as our latest assessment, the Personal Sustainability Index (PSI), which can serve as a self-monitoring tool for stress levels and make recommendations for renewal activities.

Next Up…

Attention: The Three Main Types

Our attention is under siege these days, between multi-tasking, following social media, and whatever other demands life makes of us. It helps to realize there are three main kinds of attention:

• Focus, where we direct the brain’s resources toward one thing, like a flashlight beam. You need this when you are getting something done, and the better your focus the more capable you’ll be.
• Alertness, where you are ready for anything that might need your attention. It’s like a flashing yellow traffic light, telling you to prepare for whatever might need your full attention.
• The juggler, your capacity to put your attention wherever it’s needed at the moment. Like a CEO, who makes sure all the key tasks of the outfit get taken care of, your juggle allots your awareness as the situation demands – your kids, your work, making dinner, you name it.

These are explained in practical detail in Amishi Jha’s new book Peak Mind , and on my podcast First Person Plural with her.

And now…

EI accounts for 80% of success. Wrong!

This misinterpretation pops up online from time to time. It’s a misreading of a line from Emotional Intelligence where I say IQ contributes about 20% to a persona’s success in life (by the way, 20% is considered pretty good in the psychology world).

But then some folks interpret this as meaning that 80% of success comes from a person’s emotional intelligence. This is a big mistake.

What I actually said is that the other 80% comes from all kinds of factors, ranging from the wealth of your family of origin, your education level, and your network of connections, to luck.

And as I’ve pointed out the degree to which IQ versus emotional intelligence matter for success depends on the area of life you’re talking about. If it’s success in school, IQ matters enormously. If it’s your romantic life, IQ may not be as major a deal as EI abilities like empathy.

And when it comes to success in your work life, there’s a fascinating interplay between IQ and EI.  For many jobs there’s a high threshold for cognitive ability – to become an electrician, for instance, you need to understand basics of electricity. That takes a certain level of cognitive ability.

The same with getting an MBA, law degree, nursing certification or MSW. Estimates of the IQ power needed to get a masters-level degree put it about a standard deviation above the norm – around an !Q of 114 or higher. That means in those professions there’s a high “floor effect” for IQ – or, put differently, everyone you are competing with is about as smart as you are.

That puts a premium on EI in who stands out, whether it’s in their goal-focus, managing their upsetting emotions, empathy with colleagues and customers, or teamwork.  And such EI factors turn out  to be what many organizations are looking for in those they select as leaders.

To Close…

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To truly work with empathy, an organization needs to base product and services designs on an in-depth understanding of customer needs. This level of effort is part of the culture at Google, which Dr. Matthew Lippincott and I discussed in an interview with Ruchika Sikri , former Head of Well-being Learning Strategy and CultureDev for Google, and now the Managing Partner of Wisdom Ventures Fund.