Social intelligence is the ability to understand social situations and behave effectively within them.

The key to developing strong interpersonal relationships of all types is rooted in social intelligence.

Social intelligence is critical for leaders and can be developed.

I was recently on Scott Allen’s Phronesis podcast discussing social intelligence and leadership. I was somewhat surprised when Scott mentioned that the topic of social intelligence had not been previously discussed in his over 300 episodes. Here is an overview of the role that social intelligence plays in effective leadership.

What Is Social Intelligence?

Social intelligence is the ability to understand social situations and behave effectively within them. We can view social intelligence as a subset of the broad domain of intelligence, or as Howard Gardner (1983) and other intelligence researchers (e.g., Guilford, 1967) suggest, it is one of the multiple forms of intelligence. While emotional intelligence focuses on understanding and managing emotions in human interactions, it is only a portion of the larger........

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