Social Intelligence

This article focuses on the issue of social intelligence in We all know one: a person with a "toxic personality." Someone who, after you interact with him or her, leaves you feeling devalued, inadequate, angry, frustrated, or guilty. According to Karl Albrecht, management consultant and author, these are people with low social intelligence. Their opposites are people with magnetic or "nourishing" personalities. Ever since Harvard's Howard Gardner put forth his theory of multiple intelligences, social scientists have been exploring each one. Managers and HRD professionals, in their eternal quest to measure, manage, predict, and change the mercurial beings that make up the workforce, look to these tools and models for answers.