June 14 - Building on the success of Daniel Goleman's 1997 best seller, "Emotional Intelligence," psychologists Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves designed a test that assesses the four pillars of EQ: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. “Emotional Intelligence Appraisal” was published in 2003, and the creators say more than 500,000 people have taken the assessment so far. The pair has used it to teach Fortune 500 companies, governments and even a few royal families how to fix management dysfunction. Now they are making their findings—and the test itself—available to anyone in their new book, “The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book: Everything You Need to Know to Put Your EQ to Work.” When they say quick, they mean it. The test only takes about seven minutes, and the book is a fast read with compelling anecdotes and good context in which to understand—and improve—your score.

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Is that what you mean when you write about “leaning into your discomfort?”
Self-awareness is the No. 1 skill for improving your EQ. There are things that we aren’t aware of for a reason; they are things that make us uncomfortable, and we don’t want to change so we don’t think about them. It’s like making yourself go to the gym. You have to do that thing you don’t want to do. For example, I need to be a more social husband. When my wife tells me an event is optional and I really want to stay home, I go because I know it’s a place where I’m not naturally a good husband.

You also write about how EQ can help people recover from illness. How?
It’s not that emotional intelligence cures breast cancer, but stress does affect your health. There is a simple biological reason: when you get stressed out, your immune system shuts down. People get stressed out about their emotions. They feel bad. But people who have emotional mastery, when something extreme happens in their life, they are OK with it.