The concept that other factors besides IQ play a crucial role in determining an individual's success and satisfaction with career pursuits has been put forward by many, but largely popularized by Daniel Goleman in his Book "Emotional Intelligence" (Published by Bantam Books, 1995), and in the subsequent titles “Working With Emotional Intelligence”, and “Primal Leadership”. Goleman has indicated in subsequent writings that he started the “Emotional Intelligence” project in response to another popular book of the time, "The Bell Curve"--which made the case for IQ being a prominent factor in determining success across many key functioning areas, and suggested that majority groups in the United States had a competitive advantage related to possessing superior IQ scores. In "Emotional Intelligence", and subsequently in his following books "Working with Emotional Intelligence", and "Primal Leadership", Goleman outlined the argument, utilizing extensive research and data, that IQ is actually a very poor predictor of career and other areas of success, and that peak performers in the world of business possess other core emotionally related competencies, including the key areas of Self-Awareness, Empathy, Self-Control, and Social Skills such as influence and team building. Goleman presents overwhelming research that advanced degrees, technical training, and general intellectual abilities are entry level requirements, but that it is actually these emotionally based skills that predict success in today’s career environment, and that these are the factors that predict the truly successful career performers, and accurately define the vast majority of those who rise to the highest levels of organizational leadership. Goleman Opens "Working With Emotional Intelligence" by stating: 

"The rules of work are changing. We're being judged by a yardstick: not just how smart we are, or our expertise, but also how we handle ourselves and each other."

In "Working With Emotional Intelligence”, Goleman, a Harvard educated Psychologist, and experienced scientific journalist, documents that in determining star performance in nearly every field of career endeavor, emotional intelligence competencies matter twice as much as cognitive abilities (such as measured by IQ) and/or technical expertise. These crucial skills can also be learned, unlike many factors measured by IQ.

Peter Salovey (Yale University) and John Mayer (University of New Hampshire) are research Psychologists who have pioneered the theory of emotional intelligence, and have researched the area extensively. Salovey and Mayer have developed several well researched and extensively tested measures to assess practical abilities across emotional intelligence areas. The most recent version, the MSCEIT, is available to qualified purchasers (individuals with advanced training in psychometric testing) through Multi Health Systems (www.mhs.com). Reuven Bar-On, is another Psychologist who has conducted extensive research in this area, and who developed his own self-report measure of emotional intelligence, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i). Dr. Goleman's own research endeavors have lead to his development of an additional workplace related emotional intelligence measure (Emotional Competence Inventory) that relies upon feedback from the individual participant, their immediate supervisor, those who report directly to this individual, and the individuals colleagues or same level peers. Goleman advocates that this multi-level assessment approach (termed a 360 evaluation-related to a comprehensive and complete, or 360 degree data collection process). All of these measures are use widely utilized in top businesses and organizations in efforts to assess and strengthen the essential core competencies of emotional intelligence. All authors would advise caution as well, as to the process for use of these competency assessments, and the notable care and respect required in delivering feedback to individuals, and in preserving the confidentiality of this data within an organizational setting. All such publishers of these testing materials advocate for the ethical and appropriate usage of these instruments by trained and qualified professionals who abide by the standards set fourth by the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org) in the usage of these instruments and in the presentation of assessment results.

At J. F. Zagotta and Associates, LLC, we model our practice of career and organizational coaching/consulting on the research and practices put forward in Dr. Goleman's groundbreaking compilations of the impact of emotional intelligence in relation to career endeavors. We believe exposure to these publications by Dr. Goleman ("Emotional Intelligence", "Working With Emotional Intelligence", and "Primal Leadership") serve as our most effective means of advertisement and marketing. We seek to help individuals and organizations build emotionally intelligent career and organizational enrichment programs.

We encourage the utilization of reputable professional coaches and consultants in these areas by those seeking to foster the lessons of the emotional intelligence research, and put fourth that the completive edge to be gained from these lessons, as well as the personal satisfaction within ones career endeavors, is too valuable to ignore given today's job- market realities. We further advocate for the unique role that professional psychologists can bring to these endeavors, through their combination of training in interpersonal interaction, research and theoretically based exploration of human behaviors/competencies, as well as expertise in scientifically based assessment procedures, and the measurement of programmatic outcomes. We offer links to other Coaches and Consultants that we believe possess the requisite training, skills, and experience base to be competent and reputable professional resources in assisting individuals and organizations with these types of endeavors.

We believe that our particular strength, as a new and smaller sized career coaching and consulting organization, is our ability to provide highly individualized services and programs to our clients. Our clients deal directly with our doctoral trained coaching/consulting staff, and our programs are designed specifically for our individual and organizational clients.

We periodically offer our introductory seminars, "The Lessons of Daniel Goleman's Working with Emotional Intelligence", and "The lessons of Daniel Goleman's Primal Leadership", at minimal cost, to expose individual professionals and organizations to the compelling analysis offered in these groundbreaking and scientifically based best sellers.  We also offer a variety of other topics as well. Please inquire about our next seminar offering.

Of course, we are also available for individualized consultations addressing the needs professionals and organizations. Please see our full contact information on the "Contact and Links" page of this website. We look forward to your feed back and inquiries.