Social Intelligence

Columbia Business School has introduced a new program that teaches the importance of a more empathetic and sensitive leadership style in globalized business.

Students learn how to read facial expressions, body language and posture, and get coaching on their brain's "mirror neurons"-- how what they're thinking and feeling can affect others.

Daniel Goleman, whose new book "Social Intelligence" is being taught in the program, points out that "while women are, in general, better at reading emotions, men tend to be better at managing them during a crisis.  Women tend to be more sophisticated in reading social interactions but also tend to ruminate more when things go wrong."

Neenu Sharma, an MBA student in the new Columbia program, says the moral of the story is that leadership works best with both sexes involved.  "You need the woman there to know what's actually going on but you need the man there to deal with the critical emotions at the time."

Source: Maureen Dowd, The New York Times