Whiteboard: Emotional Intelligence
soft skills contribute to a hard Marine
Soft skills contribute to a hard Marine.
I’m a big advocate for emotional intelligence. After reading Daniel Goleman’s book “Emotional Intelligence,” I started recognizing the importance of EI in EVERY human interaction I had.
Doctrine recognizes the importance of an emotionally intelligent warfighter. Look no further than Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1, Warfighting:
“Because war is a clash between opposing human wills, the human dimension is central in war. It is the human dimension which infuses war with its intangible moral factors. War is shaped by human nature and is subject to the complexities, inconsistencies, and peculiarities which characterize human behavior. Since war is an act of violence based on irreconcilable disagreement, it will invariably inflame and be shaped by human emotions.”
An article I wrote in 2020 was published by the Marine Corps Gazette.
Read “EI and the Warfighter” here: https://mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/MCG-October-2021.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3_XCTUqZyKH5Lqkx89-qSV_Yb9cUomkMlE3YCCga77RioxpgiDoJrIfhI&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
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How do you think we ought to measure EI, if possible?
Interesting read, thanks for sharing. Suggestion - change links to actually be a hyperlink (hit the chain icon, type title and insert link) so readers don’t have to copy paste.
Interesting. I went back through your older posts and read the MCG article and shared it as well as the list of the leadership principles with my younger daughter who is just a few years into corporate America and is experiencing some of the leadership gaps common there. I've just retired, but if I were still at it, I would be prioritizing studying EI and leadership far more than the craft of the analytics work done by the teams I led. Thank you for your work.