Obama, A Real Life Model Of Emotional Intelligence

As a professional coach with a specialization in Executive Coaching/Anger Management for Physicians™, I work daily to enhance the emotional intelligence skills of high-level professionals. My work is practiced based, which is more similar to the coaching done in professional sports. The opposite of practiced based work is academic, theoretical or psychotherapeutic.

"Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion: the ability to access and or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth." Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your own feelings and needs and to sense with a degree of accuracy the feelings, needs and motivations of others and use this information in a way which leads to win-win situations for both parties. Emotional intelligence is a greater predictor of success in life and work than IQ that predicts academic success.

As the inauguration of Barack Obama commences, I have concluded that I cannot find a better public model of emotional intelligence than Obama. The four domains of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-control (anger management), social awareness and relationship management.

A careful review of Obama’s professional and personal life reveals a man who personifies all of the four domains mentioned above. In addition, he is an excellent listener and an assertive communicator, and a person who demonstrates his mastery of all of the qualities that makes a great leader and person.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF
Diplomate, American Association of Anger Management Providers
Anderson & Anderson®Trusted Name in Anger Management
Ph: 310-207-3591
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http://www.andersonservices.com
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