Social Intelligence: A Critical, Overlooked Leadership Skill

I was recently on Scott Allen's Phronesis podcast discussing social intelligence and leadership. I was somewhat surprised when Scott mentioned that the topic of social intelligence had not been previously discussed in his more than 300 episodes. Here is an overview of the role that social intelligence plays in effective leadership.

What Is Social Intelligence?

Social intelligence is the ability to understand social situations and behave effectively within them. We can view social intelligence as a subset of the broad domain of intelligence, or as Howard Gardner (1983) and other intelligence researchers (e.g., Guilford, 1967) suggest, as one of the multiple forms of intelligence. While emotional intelligence focuses on understanding and managing emotions in human interactions, it is only a portion of the larger construct of social intelligence.

Socially-intelligent individuals are able to read social situations, view and interpret others' social behavior and perform effectively in a wide variety of contexts.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Psychology Today.