Where to Start with Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves
Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves are award-winning authors and cofounders of TalentSmart, a global consultancy that serves more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. Their research has tested more than a million people and identified emotional intelligence as the single biggest predictor of workplace performance. Together they have written multiple bestselling books on EQ, but their core contribution is making emotional intelligence measurable and improvable through a structured, evidence-based framework.
Start here
Emotional Intelligence 2.0
Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves · 255 pages · 2009 · Easy
Themes: emotional intelligence, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, EQ assessment
The most practical book on emotional intelligence available, with over three million copies sold. Bradberry and Greaves break EQ into four learnable skills and provide 66 specific strategies for improvement.
Why Start Here
This is the book that made Bradberry and Greaves’ reputation, and it remains the best entry point into their work. The four-skill framework (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management) gives you a clear map of emotional intelligence that you can immediately apply.
The book includes access to the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, an online assessment that has been taken by millions of people worldwide. Taking the test before reading gives you a personalized starting point, and the strategies in each chapter are designed to target specific skill gaps. This assessment-plus-strategy approach makes the book unusually actionable.
What to Expect
A concise, direct book at 255 pages designed for busy professionals. The writing is clear and practical, focused on what to do rather than why it matters. You can read it in a weekend and start applying the strategies immediately.