EQ and Leadership In Asia: Using Emotional Intelligence To Lead And Inspire Your People

Chapter 5

ASIA’S CONTRIBUTION TO EI

THE POWER OF PARADOX

Asian thinking doesn’t ignore paradoxes: it turns them into harmony, as both parts of the paradox can be reconciled. This ability to reconcile paradoxes proves very useful when it comes to emotional intelligence, as it means that we don’t have to compromise.

One of my previous bosses, the international director based at the headquarters of my firm in Europe, would often say: “Chinese people are really unnecessarily complicated.”

I would immediately think to myself (but not say aloud, as I lacked the guts to confront him on this at that time): What would Chinese people say about you? I bet that they could say pretty much the same—or worse, perhaps. I would even imagine in my mind how they ...