People Skills for Analytical Thinkers: Boost Your Communication and Advance Your Career - and Life

emotional intelligence is an amazing cure against indecisiveness.

your brain as a group of algorithms. Your algorithms help you process situations, and based on that, you decide how you will behave. This decision-making process doesn’t only look at facts and figures. Emotions are also an important part of the equation.

The elephant is emotional, irrational, and impulsive. On the other side, the rider is analytical, rational, and controlled. The rider objectively knows the best way to go, but the elephant is 70 times heavier. The rider can gently steer and pull the elephant in a direction (rational brain), but the elephant goes where they want to go (emotional brain).7 The classic (and false) assumption is this: disregard feelings; only focus on facts.8 That is exactly how I thought six years ago.

The elephant is emotional, irrational, and impulsive. On the other side, the rider is analytical, rational, and controlled. The rider objectively knows the best way to go, but the elephant is 70 times heavier. The rider can gently steer and pull the elephant in a direction (rational brain), but the elephant goes where they want to go (emotional brain).7

if you eliminate emotions, you ignore the beast that has all the power.

your rational rider knows what is best for you, but your emotional elephant enjoys instant gratification and pushes for the easy path.

You become powerful when you can tap into both your rational brain and your emotional brain.

The rider and the elephant need to work in harmony. And that’s where emotional intelligence comes into play.

emotional intelligence is, “The ability to recognize, understand and manage our own emotions; and to recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.”9

emotions will influence how you make decisions.

emotions will influence how you make decisions. Next to factual variables, emotional variables are always part of your algorithms.

the better you understand what makes your emotions go up and down, the better you understand your algorithms.

the better you understand what makes your emotions go up and down, the better you understand your algorithms. And the better you understand your algorithms, the easier the interactions with other people become.

Embrace emotions and use them to your advantage.

You can try to convince someone with the best and most logical argument you can think of. However, if you don’t listen to the other person’s emotional brain, you will have a hard time changing their mind.

“The most logical decision-making pays attention to emotions.”

Life is complex, and we never have a complete set of information. Analysis seldom gives us clear-cut decisions. In most situations, the best that logic can do is present us with several possible options. Emotions can help us recognize our inner desires and make a good choice.

the rational rider only has a map that shows facts about the different paths.

Increasing your emotional intelligence helps you understand when it’s a good idea to listen.

we have developed a strong fear of social rejection. That’s why we get irrationally nervous for a presentation, thinking “What if the group doesn’t like it?”