Armchair Expert
Episode 312: Daniel Goleman
Summary:
Armchair Expert. (2021, April 08). Episode 312: Daniel Goleman. Retrieved from Armchair Expert Podcast: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/daniel-goleman
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard is a podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, focusing on interviewing celebrities and professionals to learn more about the “messiness of being human” (Armchair Expert, n.d.). The episode reviewed for this blog was Episode 312: Daniel Goleman.
In Episode 312, Goleman, Shepard, and Padman discuss emotional intelligence and how it impacts our everyday lives, including within the workplace. The podcast opens with a discussion around putting emotions together with intelligence and that at the core of emotional intelligence is self-awareness (Armchair Expert, 13:30). Goleman explains throughout the podcast with many illustrated examples that emotional intelligence begins with being able to define what you are feeling, and by doing so, you become empowered to take cognitive control of your emotions and calm down. He speaks about the amygdala hijack (a state of mind where your stress has taken over) and how it can lead us to make irrational decisions in the heat of a moment, and how we should learn to control this feeling before it gets us into trouble. The podcast flows from discussing personal examples in everyday life to those within the workplace and how our emotional intelligence impacts our type of employee, co-worker, and leader.
Goleman speaks to travelling the world with his career and asking people he had encountered about the best boss and the worst boss they have ever had. According to Goleman, “the best boss invariable defines emotional intelligence, and the worst boss is some kind of jerk” (Armchair Expert, 28:30). This further strengthens his argument that you need to constantly take inventory of your emotional intelligence and improve cognitive control to be a successful human being. The best leaders are not those with a high intelligence quotient but the most personable and easy to be around and get along with. After discussing this in detail, Goleman ends the podcast talking about EI and our overall health; how managing our emotions can help us be more healthy and better able to function in high-stress situations, notably the workplace.
Q2:
While it may seem unconventional to listen to a Dax Shepard podcast to learn more about our EQ and how we can develop our skills for the workplace, it was a perfect place to get information at a level that felt digestible engaging, and entertaining. Daniel Goleman provides some critical information in this interview about how emotionally intelligent leaders are successful in the workplace and strategies we can take to develop our EQ. These strategies include taking inventory of our emotions, accepting responsibility for our feelings, and controlling those emotions in even the highest intensity of situations.
Taking inventory of our feelings requires labelling what our feelings are and acknowledging them before they influence our actions negatively. The example used in the podcast surrounds a miscommunication in an email between worker A and worker B. Worker A had no ill intentions. Still, worker B misinterprets the discussion and feels their heart rate elevating. Enter: the amygdala hijack. Before he knows it, worker B has penned an email that reflects his discontent and hits send in the heat of the moment. Even though worker A may not have intended it, worker B let his anger and frustration get the better of him. Goleman says this is when we are most vulnerable and should take time to inventory, name, and reflect on our emotions to gain control and increase our EQ under challenging situations. Since the podcast wasn’t narrated from a specific podcast, I feel this could apply in almost all workplaces (and even some personal lives, if we’re being honest!).
Q3:
Personally speaking, I think that this podcast was easy to understand and brought our real-world situations where I could see that a higher EQ would have proved useful. As is the case for us all, I am only human and have fallen victim to the amygdala hijack in the workplace. When working a part-time job as a teenager, I was promoted to supervisor and did not always react to staff concerns in a constructive way. At times, high-stress situations would occur between staff and clients, causing me to choose the client’s side, even if they were in the wrong. Having weak EQ and not enough experience, I did not recognize the needs of my staff and always put the client first, even when I should have dug deeper to find the root cause of the conflict. If I were in a similar situation now, I would have more self-awareness and a higher EQ to react helpfully and propel the team forward.
References:
Armchair Expert. (2021, April 08). Episode 312: Daniel Goleman. Retrieved from Armchair Expert Podcast: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/daniel-goleman
Armchair Expert. (n.d.). About the Podcast. Retrieved from Armchair Expert: https://armchairexpertpod.com/about
Goleman, D. (n.d.). About Daniel Goleman. Retrieved from Daniel Goleman: https://www.danielgoleman.info/biography/
Resilient Educator. (2020, June 11). Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Theory Explained. Retrieved from Resilient Educator: https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/daniel-golemans-emotional-intelligence-theory-explained/
Emotional Intelligence and the Workplace 
Ashley, this was an AMAZING blog! I really enjoyed the content, right from the first blog. I personally had no idea about Mr. Rogers ( I was more a Mr. Dress-up kid) but I have 2 wonderful little kiddos, who love cartoons. As a parent It is alarming the amount of garbage on TV, and the amount of monitoring that goes into it. This blog though makes me feel like I need to monitor my kids emotion intelligence more than the content to instill this skill in them. Thank you for giving me something to really think and plan for!
As I kept reading, there were certain moments where I really had some shocked reactions. Of course the dark side of EI was a great one. The comparison in the article is great! The stuff about Hitler taking pictures of hand gestures that struck emotion! WOW! That is insane, which actually related back to an earlier blog where you mentioned being able to control emotions like anxiety lead to better management of social relationships. I feel Hitler was clearly able to do this.
Another moment was the mention of the co-worker survey to use EI to to undermine other co-workers. I honestly don’t know why I found this as shocking as I do, I’ve had some rough experiences in my last job. I worked there for 12 years so I’ve seen a lot of people throughout the years. This helps to explain some of their actions.
I hadn’t heard of emotional labor before. If we covered it in this class, I clearly missed it! Thanks for bringing this into some light and really helping people to understand the sacrifices their EI, and feelings take to just make it through. I can relate to this at a high level with school. What a ride its been! I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. There are many moments, when we just have to deal and move on.
This was a great read. I would recommend more people should read it. The level of thought put into the writing is amazing. You’re great at what you do! Thanks for the high level of education on this subject and being a great friend and student to work with! Best of luck to you in everything you do!
Sam
LikeLike