Emotional Intelligence for Managing Results in a Diverse World: The Hard Truth About Soft Skills in the Workplace

Whether working across time zones from here to Dubai or encountering differences with teammates in the next office, anger and frustration are easy to come by when others don't do things our way, follow directions, or respond the way we think they should. And when emotions manage our relationships with others--especially in the workplace--conflict, disengagement, and low morale result. Emotional Intelligence for Managing Results in a Diverse World offers managers, supervisors, and team leaders alike a proven approach to capturing and using the energy of emotions to bridge difference, turn difficult relationships into satisfying ones, and create a healthier workplace and more effective organizations.

About the Authors

Lee Gardenswartz, PhD, is a partner in the Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Institute (EIDI) and in the management consulting firm of Gardenswartz & Rowe of Los Angeles, California. Since 1980 Gardenswartz & Rowe has specialized in shaping corporate culture for a variety of clients across the country, helping them build productive and cohesive work teams and create intercultural understanding and harmony in the workplace.

In addition to working directly with clients, Gardenswartz and her partner, Anita Rowe, have also helped organizations through their writing on diversity. They have coauthored books such as Managing Diversity: A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide (1993; revised edition, 1998), which won the Book of the Year award from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and has served as a primary guide to organizations in structuring their diversity initiatives, providing not only conceptual information but techniques and tools as well. Gardenswartz and Rowe have coauthored The Managing Diversity Survival Guide (1994), The Diversity Tool Kit (1994), Diverse Teams at Work (1995), Managing Diversity in Health Care (1998), Managing Diversity in Health Care Manual (1999), and The Global Diversity Desk Reference (2003).

Among Gardenswartz & Rowe’s clients are Sempra Energy, Harvard Medical School, Shell Oil Company, the Internal Revenue Service, Kaiser Permanente, the American Broadcasting Company, the Boeing Company, Equity Residential, Countrywide Financial Corporation, Wells Fargo, Walt Disney World, Starbucks, Cox Communications, and Progress Energy. Gardenswartz & Rowe’s principals also continue to teach about diversity through SHRM’s Diversity Train-the-Trainer certificate program and through institutions such as the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon, and the Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Institute.

Jorge Cherbosque, PhD, has codirected the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Staff and Faculty Counseling and Consultation Center for the past seventeen years. He also teaches at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Cherbosque is a speaker, trainer, and consultant for various clients, including Cox Communications, Knight Ryder Digital, Chase Manhattan Bank, Verizon, Neutrogena, and General Motors. He has also served as a resource for the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the Young Entrepreneur Organization (YEO), and the World Presidents Organization (WPO). Known as an expert in Hispanic marketing, he has moderated numerous qualitative studies for clients such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Verizon, Wells Fargo, Target, and Toyota.

Cherbosque has published articles in a broad range of scholarly journals. He is also in demand as a keynote speaker and a workshop presenter on topics such as “Moving from the Ordinary to the Extraordinary,” “Discovering the Hidden Treasures of Your Family,” and “Emotional Intelligence as a Leadership Skill that Inspires Heart and Soul Commitment.”

Anita Rowe, PhD, partner in Gardenswartz & Rowe and the Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Institute, has been consulting with organizations regarding diversity since 1977, helping them manage culture change, build productive and cohesive work teams, and create intercultural understanding and harmony in the workplace. She holds a doctorate of human behavior from the United States International University.

In addition to direct client relationships, Rowe and her partner, Lee Gardenswartz, have also helped organizations through their writing on diversity. They have coauthored books such as Managing Diversity: A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide (1993; revised edition, 1998) which won the Book of the Year award from the Society for Human Resource Management, and has served as a primary guide to organizations in structuring their diversity initiatives, providing not only conceptual information but techniques and tools as well. Rowe and Gardenswartz have coauthored The Managing Diversity Survival Guide (1994), The Diversity Tool Kit (1994), Diverse Teams at Work (1995), Managing Diversity in Health Care (1998), Managing Diversity in Health Care Manual (1999), and The Global Diversity Desk Reference (2003).

Among Gardenswartz & Rowe’s clients are Sempra Energy, Harvard Medical School, Shell Oil Company, the Internal Revenue Service, Kaiser Permanente, the American Broadcasting Company, the Boeing Company, Equity Residential, Countrywide Financial Corporation, Wells Fargo, Walt Disney World, Starbucks, Cox Communications, and Progress Energy. Gardenswartz & Rowe’s principals also continue to teach about diversity through SHRM’s Diversity Train-the-Trainer certificate program and through institutions such as the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon, and the Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Institute.