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Emotional intelligence is not just about ‘being nice’
Masters of EQ are quite often the opposite because they include con artists, pick-up artists, stand-up comedians, spies and abusive partners
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EQ has become a matter of external behaviour, though there is no correlation between outward goodness and psychological acumen.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Janan Ganesh
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Coming to Riverside Studios in west London this autumn is a production of Othello with (but of course) a modern twist. Three different actors play Iago. For those who have not had a chance these 400 years to acquaint themselves with Shakespeare’s greatest villain, what Iago does, again and again, is fathom the inner life of other people to gain mastery over them. He senses: the sexual paranoia of his boss, the neglected feeling of his own wife, the romantic desperation of a local chump called Roderigo, the mix of ambition and chivalric honour in a fellow soldier.
Iago has more than the regular quotient of evil. But that alone would not get him far. His real advantage is, if we use this term with rigour, emotional intelligence.
