Chapter 3: Read People: Identifying Emotions
What does it mean to be able to identify emotions accurately—to take the first step described in our model? Managers with these skills are described by the statements in Column A in Exhibit 3.1. Managers who struggle with this skill are often described by statements such as those listed in Column B.
Column A: Skillful | Column B: Not Skillful |
---|---|
Knows what people feel | Misreads people’s emotions |
Will talk about feelings | Doesn’t talk about feelings |
Can show how they feel | Never shows feelings |
Expresses feelings when upset | Does not know how to express feelings |
Smiles when happy or pleased | Maintains neutral expression |
Reads people accurately | Fails to identify how others feel |
Good at recognizing own feelings | Misunderstands own feelings |
Let’s take a look at two people, each of whom is better described by one of these lists of attributes than the other.