In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming returned from a two-week vacation and realized he had made a significant oversight. In his haste to leave for his holiday, he had left a messy pile of petri dishes on his workstation. As he began to dispose of the dishes, something unusual caught his eye: a mold had formed around the bacteria in one of the petri dishes. Upon closer examination, Fleming made a startling discovery. The mold wasn’t just growing—it was actively inhibiting the spread of the bacteria.

I have had countless counseling clients over the years present to me emotionally laden reactions to feeling triggered by the comments of others. You’re in a conversation, and suddenly, something the other person says makes your heart race and your muscles tense. Maybe it’s a comment from a family member, a passive-aggressive remark from a coworker, or an old friend bringing up a painful past. Instead of reacting in anger or shutting down, there’s one phrase that can help you stay in control: “That’s interesting. Tell me more.”

A glance at the day’s headlines reveals a universal truth: Leadership matters. Whether uplifting and ethical or toxic and abusive, leaders profoundly shape our lives. And this is especially true on the job. Research consistently shows that leadership influences employees’ attitudes, behaviors and emotions, driving key organizational outcomes such as creativity, employee engagement, well-being and financial performance.

While most of us accept that artificial intelligence isn’t going to take over the world just yet, there’s a growing recognition that businesses and their employees are going to have to adapt their skills pretty swiftly. According to the 2024 Global CEO Survey from consulting firm PwC, seven out of 10 CEOs believe that AI will significantly change the way their company creates, delivers, and captures value over the next three years. On the plus side, 41% believe it will increase revenue.

This year marks a historical workplace milestone with six generations in the workforce at one time, from Traditionalists, who still hold many significant leadership positions, to Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and finally Generation Alpha, who are working their first summer jobs. That many generations in one organization can pose a particular set of challenges, specifically when it comes to communication, processes, and preferences.

It's probably the most famous challenge in sales, to say nothing of an increasingly dreaded interview question: "Sell me this pen." Even if people didn't know it before, the 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street made it famous. And the images of would-be salespeople foundering, trying to describe the positive attributes of a pen without any real sales strategy, are hard to forget once you've seen them.

Successful salespeople possess many skills. They need the confidence to present sales pitches, the motivation to increase sales for their organization, and the passion and knowledge to promote your product or service. However, their most essential skill may be emotional intelligence. High-level sales involve emotionally connecting with customers. Creating genuine connections means understanding and harnessing your own emotions as well as your prospects’ and customers’ emotions.

Roger Federer is going viral. This time, it's not for a tennis victory. Rather, it's for his remarkable commencement address, which he delivered on Sunday to the 2024 graduating class of Dartmouth College. Federer's speech is an amazing case study in emotional intelligent speaking: It's funny, motivating, inspiring. It's emotionally moving. And most important, it has valuable takeaways--

We are not born with certain skills, though it could be such a great default option, right? If we could choose the level of patience, emotional intelligence, and empathy right away, we would overcome all life challenges much easier. So, what are soft skills? Can you learn them? Why can they add some extra points when you are networking or looking for a job?

Micromanagement isn't just a corporate buzzword, but if you haven’t experienced it personally, you might not fully understand just how negatively it can affect employees. You also might be micromanaging without even realizing it. Here’s how micromanagement affects individual employees, teams, and organizations. What is Micromanaging?

In today’s world of intolerance, conflict, and divisiveness we would all benefit from more kindness and emotional intelligence. And some organizations are truly trying to build these skills. In research cited in HBR a while back, we learned that 20% of U.S. companies now offer empathy training to their managers and leaders. That’s a great beginning. And as a leadership and culture coach, I applaud it.

When I have an unreasonable customer, I have no problem encouraging them to do business elsewhere (again, after making reasonable attempts to satisfy them). The investment of time and emotional resources are often not worth trying to satisfy such a person. Better to lose one out of 50 customers--especially if that customer is taking 10 times the time and effort to deal with.

When I was a youngster, my uncle was director of a national laboratory, overseeing several thousand research scientists. As a scientist himself, he loved his work. But the part of his job he hated, he told me, was laying off employees. Firing people no doubt ranks among the least favorite tasks of any leader. Yet executives, driven by the downturn in the economy, are firing thousands these days. But there are better and worse ways to let someone go.

It used to be that technical proficiency was the main quality that was desired when it came to leadership. And while technical proficiency is important, it is now considered an entry level skill that is necessary to get your foot in the door. Besides, many jobs are now so complex that we need to rely on a team of competent people.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is often regarded as the distinguishing factor in leading to success. This is true across different domains including all types of business, leadership, politics, education, science, and even family and social life.

In my experience as a consultant who has transformed 16 companies, and as an entrepreneur who has built or bought almost as many of my own enterprises, I’ve learned that managers and leaders often miss one crucial point about emotional intelligence (“EQ”): EQ requires intolerance for the intolerable just as much as it requires empathy.

The TTI SI research team is always hard at work to uncover the industry insights and patterns of behavior that you need to know. Our latest Research Cliffnotes is called What Assessments Revealed About Gender & Skills Development in University Students.