ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the second leg of the “head, heart and gut” trilogy, namely “heart”, or emotions.
We have a long history, going back to biblical times, of viewing the heart as metaphor for many attributes and qualities including especially the emotions.
We also have a more recent concept of the “brain in the heart”: viewing the heart as having its own intelligence. Is that valid or is the heart, more prosaically, just an organ pumping blood?
Emotional intelligence is critical to maximum effectiveness in most professional relationships: properly understanding emotions and their relevance, purpose and effect. We have established various myths about emotions: that people make their decisions rationally rather than emotionally; that “negative” emotions are bad; that “venting” an emotion will resolve it; and that women are emotional but men are not. The reality about emotions needs to be distinguished from the myths.
