The Emotionally Intelligent Office

20 Key Emotional Skills for the Workplace

by The School of Life
edited by Alain de Botton

An exploration of what lies behind our problematic behavioral patterns in the workplace and how we can overcome them.

Stress and mental ill health currently costs the United States economy $300 billion a year. Modern businesses continue to place huge emphasis on technical training, yet a lot of what determines the success or failure of organisations has nothing to do with the sort of hard skills taught at business school; instead, it comes down to the degree of emotional intelligence circulating in the workplace.

This is a book that introduces us to twenty core emotional skills that can help businesses to flourish. They range from giving honest feedback, to accepting that it’s OK to fail, to addressing jealousies and insecurities within teams. We learn about how our childhoods continue to have an often unhelpful impact on how we deal with colleagues, and the best ways we might speak so that others will listen.

The book is informed by the practical work that the Learning and Development division of The School of Life carries out, endeavoring to change the culture within organisations around the world through teaching teams the art of emotional intelligence.

Paperback | 192 pages | The School of Life | 2019

The School of Life is a London-based organisation built to help us find calm, self-understanding, resilience and connection – especially during troubled times. The School of Life Press was established to condense their learning into a collection of wise and considered texts. The titles are designed to entertain, educate, console and transform.