Hay's five-day emotional-intelligence training programs are typically customized to each of its clients. Hay begins every program by administering an Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI), that Boyatzis and Goleman developed. Unlike Bar-On's test, which is self-administered, the ECI is a 360-degree instrument given to bosses, colleagues, and direct reports. "People tend to be very poor judges of what they aren't good at, and that is particularly true of those who are having performance problems," says Goleman. Based on a dozen responses, participants receive detailed feedback on their perceived strengths and weaknesses. Next, they design an "action plan," typically in consultation with a Hay coach who regularly monitors progress during the months ahead.

Goleman argues that even with a broad definition of emotional competency, Hay is offering something substantially different from ordinary technical-competency training. "When it comes to people's emotions, you're dealing with a different part of the brain," he says. "That part, the limbic system, is where you learn not just by processing information cognitively but also by repeating it. You need to practice a new habit to change your neural circuitry. It's not like sitting in a classroom. If you want a habit to stick, you have to repeat it over several months."

Whatever model finally prevails, the challenge ahead is to demonstrate to executives who are curious about emotional intelligence that their employees can actually be trained in such competencies, and that doing so will have a direct and significant impact on employee performance. Successfully demonstrating that will depend partly on developing a simpler definition of emotional intelligence; it will also depend on the ability to identify which competencies have the greatest effect on high performance and to make those the focus of corporate training.

Goleman is carefully optimistic about the future prospects of emotional-competency training in business. "I believe that this is a new paradigm for business and that paradigms shift slowly," he explains. "The first job is to raise awareness that this sort of training might actually make sense. It's less of a commitment for a company to have someone like me come in and talk about emotional intelligence for an hour than it is to do something about it."

Tony Schwartz (tschwartz@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company contributing editor. He is author of What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America (Bantam, 1996).

Sidebar: My EQ: the Good News and the Bad News

The good news, according to the results of my ECI (Emotional Competency Inventory), a test developed by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis for the Hay Group, is that I'm a model of emotional intelligence. I scored at or above the target level in every single category, and I got the highest possible score in the majority of them.

The bad news, according to my EQi, developed by Reuven Bar-On for Multi-Health Systems, is that I'm sorely lacking in emotional intelligence. I rate "high" in only one of five categories, and I'm "low" or "markedly low" in each of the other four.

The really sad news is that the bad news seems more accurate to me than the good news, and that neither test has told me much I didn't already know. But, first, how is it that my scores could be so radically different on two tests, each of which purports to assess emotional competence?

One possible clue is that Bar-On's EQi is a self-assessment test, whereas my scores on the ECI reflect not only my responses, but also the aggregate opinions of the nine others who rated me. Since I fared much worse on the EQi, one potential explanation is that I'm tougher on myself than others are one me. However, with a couple of notable exceptions, I gave myself almost exactly the same ratings that others gave me on the ECI. In any case, I'm skeptical that my ratings from others are necessarily more accurate than my own assessment.

Another possible explanation for my contrasting scores is that the two tests are based on different definitions of emotional intelligence. Indeed, although they do have several common elements, they also have significant disparities. In any case, the incongruence between the scores on my two tests does raise a troubling issue: Which one should a potential employer believe?

In their defense, the two tests targeted many of the same relative strengths and weaknesses. on both of them, for example, I did very well in such categories as self-awareness, initiative/assertiveness, and conscientiousness, and much less well in impulse control, stress tolerance, and conflict management. Bizarrely, however, I rated very high in "self-confidence" on the ECI (including by my own assessment) but low in "self-regard" on the EQi. maybe it had something to do with the days on which I took the tests. Of course, if that's the explanation, how reliable is either result?

Sidebar: Test Your Emotional Intelligence