What does it mean to be able to understand emotions—step three of our model? Managers with this ability may be better described by the statements in Column A in Exhibit 5.1. People who struggle with this skill are often described by statements such as those listed in Column B.
Let’s take a look at two people, each of whom is better described by one column than the other.
|
Column A: Skillful |
Column B: Not Skillful |
|---|---|
|
Makes correct assumptions about people |
Misunderstands people |
|
Knows the right thing to say |
Gets on people’s nerves |
|
Makes good predictions about what people may feel |
Is surprised by how people feel |
|
Has rich emotional vocabulary |
Finds it hard to explain feelings |
|
Understands that one can feel conflicting emotions |
Experiences on-or-off emotions, with few shades of gray |
|
Has sophisticated emotional knowledge |
Has only a basic understanding of emotions |