Daniel Goleman Quotes

58 Sourced Quotes

For better or worse, intelligence can come to nothing when emotions hold sway.

Daniel Goleman
Our genetic heritage endows each of us with a series of emotional set-points that determines our temperament. But the brain circuitry involved is extraordinarily malleable; temperament is not destiny.

Daniel Goleman
In the new workplace, with its emphasis on flexibility, teams and a strong customer orientation, this crucial set of emotional competencies is becoming increasingly essential for excellence in every job in every part of the world.

Daniel Goleman
It is difficult to spread the contagion of excitement without having a sense of purpose and direction.

Daniel Goleman
The human brain is by no means fully formed at birth. It continues to shape itself through life, with the most intense growth occurring during childhood.

Daniel Goleman
When the darkness is seen as a necessary prelude to the creative light, one is less likely to ascribe frustration to personal inadequacy or label it as bad.

Daniel Goleman
Who does not recall school at least in part as endless dreary hours of boredom punctuated by moments of high anxiety?

Daniel Goleman
Great leaders, the research shows, are made as they gradually acquire, in the course of their lives and careers, the competencies that make them so effective. The competencies can be learned by any leader, at any point.

Daniel Goleman
Risk taking and the drive to pursue innovative ideas are the fuel that stokes the entrepreneurial spirit.

Daniel Goleman
People who are optimistic see a failure as due to something that can be changed so that they can succeed next time around, while pessimists take the blame for the failure, ascribing it to some characteristic they are helpless to change.

Daniel Goleman
What seems to set apart those at the very top of competitive pursuits from others of roughly equal ability is the degree to which, beginning early in life, they can pursue an arduous practice routine for years and years.

Daniel Goleman
The emotional brain is highly attuned to symbolic meanings and to the mode Freud called the 'primary process' - the messages of metaphor, story, myth, the arts.

Daniel Goleman
The people we get along with, trust, feel simpatico with, are the strongest links in our networks

Daniel Goleman
Emotional self-control is NOT the same as overcontrol, the stifling of all feeling and spontaneity....when such emotional suppression is chronic, it can impair thinking, hamper intellectual performance and interfere with smooth social interaction. By contrast, emotional competence implies we have a choice as to how we express our feelings.

Daniel Goleman
Goal directed self-imposed delay of gratification is perhaps the essence of emotional self-regulation: the ability to deny impulse in the service of a goal, whether it be building a business, solving an algebraic equation, or pursuing the Stanley Cup.

Daniel Goleman
We learn best with focused attention. As we focus on what we're learning, the brain maps that information on what we already know making new neural connections

Daniel Goleman
People learn what they want to learn. If learning is forced on us, even if we master it temporarily, it is soon forgotten.

Daniel Goleman
Daydreaming defeats practice; those of us who browse TV while working out will never reach the top ranks. Paying full attention seems to boost the mind's processing speed, strengthen synaptic connections, and expand or create neural networks for what we are practicing.

Daniel Goleman
Worries typically follow such lines, a narrative to oneself that jumps from concern to concern and more often than not includes catastrophizing, imagining some terrible tragedy. Worries are almost always expressed in the mind's ear, not its eye - that is, in words, not images - a fact that has significance for controlling worry.

Daniel Goleman
Simply paying attention allows us to build an emotional connection. Lacking attention, empathy hasn't a chance.

Daniel Goleman
Although traditional incentives such as bonuses or recognition can prod people to better performance, no external motivators can get people to perform at their absolute best....Wherever people gravitate within their work roles, indicates where their real pleasure lies—and that pleasure is itself motivating.

Daniel Goleman
One of the leading theories of why electroconvulsive therapy is effective for most severe depressions is that it causes a loss of short-term memory - patients feel better because they can't remember why they were sad.

Daniel Goleman
A leader tuned out of his internal world will be rudderless; one blind to the world of others will be clueless; those indifferent to the larger systems within which they operate will be blindsided.

Daniel Goleman
The more time you put into practicing, then, the greater the payoff.

Daniel Goleman
We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivate those.

Daniel Goleman
Doggedness depends on emotional traits - enthusiasm and persistence in the face of setbacks - above all else.

Daniel Goleman
Green is a process, not a status. We need to think of 'green' as a verb, not an adjective.

Daniel Goleman
There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse.

Daniel Goleman
School success is not predicted by a child's fund of facts or a precocious ability to read as much as by emotional and social measures; being self-assured and interested: knowing what kind of behavior is expected and how to rein in the impulse to misbehave; being able to wait, to follow directions, and to turn to teachers for help; and expressing needs while getting along with other children.

Daniel Goleman
Whoever has the mind to fight has broken his connection with the universe. If you try to dominate people you are already defeated. We study how to resolve conflict, not how to start it.

Daniel Goleman