[rramadass]

Very well said!

"Emotional Intelligence" is just a marketing term for awareness of other people's emotional needs/thoughts/behaviour/etc. and modulating one's interactions accordingly.

The trick is to do it effectively without allowing oneself to be manipulated/becoming a doormat/hurting the other person's ego.

The books Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson et al. are useful in this regard.

[naijaboiler]

Correct. It's really understanding that people are fundamentally different and span the spectrum. E.g. To some people feelings matter more than truth, to others it's sorta reversed, and all spectrums in between. Most importantly, you need to understand yourself and how you tend to come across. We all have things we find easy to do (gives us energy) and things that drain us. And its different for everybody. If i had to boil emotional intelligence down to 1 pithy aphorism, it would be this. "Ditch the golden rule". Don't treat others as you wish to be treated. Treat others as they wish to be treated.

[rramadass]

Right. One key thing to keep in mind is that we all have an intrinsic nature/personality and no amount of study/training can change this at a fundamental level. Thus we need to be very aware of our strengths and weaknesses, take into account environment/circumstances and act accordingly.