What Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (EI) is missing

I have an enormous appreciation for the work of Daniel Goleman and his decades long commitment to bringing Emotional Intelligence and all that it encompasses, to the everyday lexicon, especially in the context of business and leadership.

He has given name and understanding to practices and ways of being that are necessary to living a fulfilling, healthy life, developing strong bonds with self and others, and leading healthy, thriving teams and organisations, that have been hard to define or previously relegated to the specialist fields of psychology therapy, spirituality or mindfulness. As our awareness and knowledge continues to grow in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, trauma, and neurobiology and how these disciplines all intertwine with each other in the lived human experience, I believe Goleman’s definition has a missing link.

Brief history of Emotional Intelligence

 In the 1990s researchers were starting to show that being able to manage our emotions was key to living successfully when much emphasis up until then had been put on developing the intellect (IQ). Around that time, the term Emotional Intelligence (EI), was first coined by researchers, John Mayer and Peter Salovey, who defined it as the ability to understand and manage our emotions and understand and respond appropriately to the emotions of those around you. In the decades since then we now understand that Emotional Intelligence is a spectrum of factors and goes beyond just managing your emotions and understanding the emotions of others. Psychologist, Daniel Goleman PhD, has gone further in popularising the term and expanded on its definitions, culminating in his seminal book ‘Emotional Intelligence (Why it can matter more than IQ) published in 2005 and updated again in 2020.

Goleman describes EI as having 4 key factors –

1. Self-Awareness (Emotional Self Awareness)

2. Self-Management (Emotional Self Control, Achievement Orientation, Positive Outlook, Adaptability, Emotional Self Control/Emotional Agility)

3. Social Awareness (Empathy, Organisational Awareness)

4. Relationship Management (Influence, Coach & Mentor, Conflict Management, Teamwork, Inspirational Leadership)

The 5th missing link for me is ‘Embodied Awareness’.

This is having a having a good understanding of our embodied self and how it connects, interacts and impacts the other four pillars of Emotional Intelligence.

5. Embodied Awareness (Energy Management, Phenomenological awareness, Groundedness, Heart Intelligence)

Defining the missing link

I define Embodied Awareness by four key factors:

Energy Management — Knowing how to manage your energy and stress. How you up/down/co-regulate your nervous system — what your propensity is, what gives you energy and what drains your energy. How you bring your physical, emotional & mental self back to balance in times of stress, or extreme emotional states through self-care and physical practices (e.g. routine, diet, sleep, breathing, exercise & movement, spiritual practices, social interaction and community).

Phenomenological Awareness — Experiencing ourself embodied in the world. The practice of being about to connect with your subjective physical experience as it is, your felt sense of ‘now’ without analysis, judgement or preconceptions. Noticing your physical stance in different situations, how you are holding your body, your physical sensations (e.g. breathing, heart rate, comfort or discomfort, tension, relaxation, temperature).

Groundedness — Practice of being about to physical and mentally connect to a calm and present state.

Heart Intelligence —Being able to connect to your heart, your ‘inner knowing’, gut intelligence, intrinsic values. Heart intelligence comes from a place of somatic coherence — when the head, heart and gut are in coherence and working systemically to inform how we make meaning of the world around us, how we show up and how we make decisions. A practice of listening to information coming in through the body along with our cognitive processing and mental positions.

I don’t believe we can practice and sustainably develop healthy Emotional Intelligence without Embodied Awareness.

The word Emotion is described as:

A person’s internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.

This shows just how intrinsic the body is in bringing intelligence to our emotions. Embodied Awareness is an essential part and practice in developing our Emotional Intelligence and living and leading sustainably and successfully.