Social Intelligence

The New Science of Success

by Karl Albrecht

Number of pages: 304

Publisher: Pfeiffer

BBB Library: Communication, Personal Success

ISBN: 9780787979386



About the Author

Karl Albrecht is a management consultant, executive advisor, futurist, researcher, and speaker. He is devoting much of his effort to finding and developing promising new concepts for organizational and individual effectiveness.

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Editorial Review

Social intelligence is defined as the ability to get along well with others while winning their cooperation. Social intelligence is a combination of sensitivity to the needs and interests of others, which is sometimes called your social radar, an attitude of generosity and consideration, and a set of practical skills for interacting successfully with people in any setting. This means that human intelligence is not just a single trait (IQ), but a constellation of capabilities. The dimensions of social intelligence which include: perceptiveness, situational savvy, and interaction skills, are the keys to success at work and in life.

Book Reviews

"The book nonetheless, recognizes other forms of intelligence such as abstract intelligence, practical intelligence, emotional intelligence, aesthetic intelligence, and kinesthetic intelligence. Much earlier in the book, it focused on emotional intelligence above all the other forms of intelligence, as a link to the immediate focus or type of intelligence-social intelligence. Albrecht defines emotional intelligence as self-awareness and self-management, while social intelligence is defined as the way to deal with people. The idea is that one has to know self first before one can improve the situation of others." Questia.com

"In Social Intelligence, Karl Albrecht explores Social Intelligence (SI), a dimension of MI, which he defines as the ability to get along well with others and a set of practical skills (situational awareness, presence, authenticity, clarity, and empathy) for interacting successfully in any setting. His integration of these key dimensions creates a comprehensive model -- S.P.A.C.E. -- for describing, assessing, and developing SI at a personal level, as well as a set of practical guidelines for using this formula as an effective diagnostic and developmental tool for professional and personal success." SmartPros

"Albrecht’s Social Intelligence is a simple-to-read, yet thought-provoking response to Daniel Goleman’s 1995 bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, which emphasized intrapersonal skills as the critical key to societal success. Instead, it is inter-personal skills, or “social intelligence,” that is more crucial than either IQ or emotional mastery in fueling success at work in the 21st century." Graziadio Business Review

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Wisdom to Share

We need an educational system that equips young people to express their ideas clearly, to make themselves understood, and to seek to understand others before reacting to their behavior.

All human interaction takes place in a context. Regardless of who's interacting with whom, where, or how, there is always a setting of some kind in which they engage one another.

Quite a few people are so self-preoccupied that they don't accurately perceive various important contexts, and consequently may not know how to behave appropriately.

Sometimes it's possible to persuade a person by offering the germ of an idea and allowing him or her to take ownership by inventing the rest of it.

The prevailing notion that one must sacrifice his or her personal well-being in order to get ahead, definitely creates focus, but at the expense of the cooperation and individual humanity.

In male-dominated industries or organizational cultures, the rewards for aggressive and competitive behaviors far outweigh the rewards for collaboration, creativity, and sensitivity to abstract social values.