Emotional & Multiple Intelligences: 10 Different Ways of Being Smart

Abstract

The constructs of emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences show that there are more ways to identify human capacities than just through logical and linguistic intelligence, as traditionally measured by I.Q. This chapter explores the role of multiple intelligences in enhancing the effectiveness of holistic leaders. By harnessing rational, emotional, inter/intra personal, and spiritual intelligences, leaders can recognize and nurture the myriad gifts that people bring to work. The concept of multiple intelligences, as propounded by the Harvard Psychologist Howard Gardner, challenges the conventional view of intelligence that focuses on language and mathematical intelligence and recognizes various additional forms of intelligence to account for excellence in music, language, sports, and the like.