II. Read and summarise the article.

You’ve got the brains hut have you got the touch?

While IQ has traditionally been the means by which we judge someone's abilities and potential. EQ - the E stands for emotional - is the new benchmark for a new world. If you've got it, you're more likely to be powerful, successful and have fulfilling relationships than if you haven't. Emotional intelligence – the ability to understand and control your emotions, and recognise and respond to those of others - is emerging as the single most important and effective business and personal skill of the new century.

At American Express, financial advisers who'd been through emotional intelligence training,

improved sales by up to 20 per cent, significantly more than the company average. A ten-year study by Sheffield University of user 100 small- and medium-sized UK businesses found that people management was three times as important as research and development in improving productivity and profitability and 6 times as important as business strategy.

Daniel Goleman, a US science journalist-turned-consultant with a background in psychology, first popularised the notion of emotional intelligence in the mid-nineties. Goleman defines five elements of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Sceptics argue that this sounds suspiciously like the old soft skills, in management-course speak, dressed up in new clothing. But Tim Sparrow, of human performance consultants Buckholdt Associates, points out a crucial difference. ‘Soft skills training was only about interpersonal intelligence - relating to others Emotional intelligence involves intrapersonal skills - knowing yourself - as well. You can't he interpersonally intelligent if you don’t recognise feelings in yourself’

The Observer