Howard Gardner
describes Interpersonal Intelligence as the ability to understand other people:
what motivates them, how they work, and how to work cooperatively with them. Successful
salespeople, politicians, teachers, clinicians and religious leaders are all
likely to be individuals with high degrees of interpersonal intelligence. (Multiple Intelligences, 1993.)
He also notes that
at its core, interpersonal intelligence includes the “capacities to discern and
respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations and desires of
other people.”
The example found in
his book to portray this interpersonal intelligence is Annie Sullivan, the
nearly blind teacher of Helen Keller. The following account is paraphrased from
Annie Sullivan: the Miracle Worker. www.biography
Their lessons together
often became physical and violent during Helen's frequent moments of
frustration. Finally, Annie insisted that Helen move with her into a small cottage
on the property so they could, deepen their relationship and maintain focus on
communication. After 7 days Annie saw clear evidence that her therapy was
working.
“My heart is singing
with joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The wild little creature of two
weeks ago has been transformed into a gentle child.”
Soon after, Helen's miracle
breakthrough occurred at the water pump, when Sullivan poured water on one of
Helen's hands while fingerspelling "w-a-t-e-r" in the other. For the
first time, Helen made the association between an object and what was spelled
in her hand. According to her autobiography, Helen then spent the rest of the
day demanding that Sullivan spell out the words for countless other objects.
Interpersonal
intelligence is inseparable from Emotional Intelligence, which is the title and
subject of the book by Daniel Goleman (Emotional
Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, 1995.)
A number of studies that have been summarized over the past
decade have shown that “there is a highly significant relationship between
emotional intelligence and occupational performance. The average predictive
validity for these studies is .55, meaning that approximately 30% of
occupational performance is based on Emotional Intelligence; and
when leader-ship is examined separately from general occupational performance,
this figure increases to about 67% meaning that two-thirds of leadership is
dependent upon Emotional Intelligence.” (1)
A very important point to emphasize here is that the
pre-frontal lobes, the part of the brain that is the mostly ignored orphan
of modern schooling, are the seat not only of superior I.Q. (envisioning, idea-generation, invention/creation), but also increased E.Q. (empathy).
To say that Interpersonal Intelligence i.e. Emotional
Intelligence is essential for success is tantamount to saying that for optimal
skill development in these areas children must be taught, and learn, in ways
that best promote these intelligences. In other words: HEART TO HEART.
I ask you, is it truly likely that schools promote both I.Q.
and E.Q. through the press and pressure of drilled abstractions, punctuated
with time-consuming discipline and punitive reactions to acting out, chewing
gum, and talking in class? As a 45-year veteran of teaching I estimate that
very likely 80% of the discipline problems in schools are due to emotional
resistance by children to Institutional Autocracies that are bankrupt in
both I.Q. and E.Q. (The other 20% can be often be attributed to food toxicity, challenging relationships, and/or hours a day spent staring at media, violent or
otherwise.)
Their resistance is simply an outcry to be taught and
related to from the heart, for the heart and to the heart. The wonderful
correlative statement is that this is also the best way to promote their future
success, including potential leadership, in the workplace.
“It
is with the heart that one sees rightly: what is essential is invisible to the
eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery,
The Little Prince
1. [e.g., Bar-On, 1997b, 2004,2006a, 2006b; Bar-On, Handley
& Fund, 2006; Han-dley, 1997; Ruderman & Bar-On, 2003], the EQ-i™
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