Just because something becomes a catchphrase doesn't always mean it's brand new. Take Emotional Intelligence, for instance. It's gotten quite a bit of publicity recently because of its effects on the personal and professional accomplishments of today's business executives, but it's actually been around for 22 years. In fact, as early as 1920 a professor at Columbia University, E. L. Thorndike, first used the term social intelligence' in discussing a person's ability to get along with other people, and that was a first cousin of what today is more commonly known as Emotional Intelligence.

So, just what is this very-old-and-very-new catchphrase all about? Basically, it refers to the ability to deal genuinely and reasonably with our own emotions as a way of enhancing and improving our thoughts and actions. It is our capacity to understand our own feelings, in effect the why, what, when and how of them, in an effort to use them wisely in matters of business, socializing, parenting, personal growth and in many other ways.

It is a topic of international importance, particularly in areas where there is a large concentration of what are called C-level managers and knowledge workers. It is suggested by many professional business and life coaches that Emotional Intelligence is vitally important in all economic sectors, but may be most important in knowledge industries because of the lower degree of interchangeability of personnel.

Indeed, there is a tremendously high number of major corporations today that seek training-and-development options to help improve not just bottom lines, but also interpersonal relationships (which, in turn, often affect bottom lines), and Emotional Intelligence is one of those areas that many of them have looked into. In addition to HR and professional development managers on the corporate level, many parents and teachers are also using Emotional Intelligence enhancement techniques to combat problems from low self-esteem and depression to drug and alcohol abuse. It has even been linked to improved academic performances.

According to developmental experts, Emotional Intelligence will be with us for a long time to come because it must counter what many business and educational professionals have been taught for the last 50 years: to concentrate only on intelligence when making decisions or dealing with other people, without

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