EQ 1

(cont'd from last Thursday's post)

Emotional intelligence (EQ) includes at least two factors: identifying emotions in yourself as well as other people, and managing them effectively. Good leaders need to set the example of some degree of EQ so that their team can grow in this skill.

This author identifies EQ in the leadership of Elon Musk relating to last week's test of the SN8.

A spacecraft in which NASA and SpaceX can confidently send people to Mars . . has not been seen on earth yet. They're using all their resources to produce such a thing, but some questions in the process cannot be answered until it actually flies. Thus, the prototype tests. Expensive tests. SN8 was estimated to be worth $200 million. The ascent went well, the switchover to the header tanks went well, the flap control on descent went well . . but it ended in fire and "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (RUD). 

Musk knew the chance of avoiding RUD would be small, but that wasn't the only goal of the test.  He reacted on twitter by naming the other tests and celebrating their success, rather than focusing on the fiery drama. For all the people who had invested massive effort in this, he re-focused on the bigger goal and congratulated their win. That was emotionally intelligent.

from Inc