Optimal
Book

Optimal

How to Sustain Personal and Organizational Excellence Every Day

Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss
HarperBusiness, 2024
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8

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Recommendation

In the pursuit of high performance, you probably pursue “flow” — the elusive state of peak performance that results from intense focus and immersion in a task. But according to psychologists Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss, you’d be better off seeking an “optimal state” — a zone of productivity and engagement that’s more consistently accessible than a flow state. Goleman and Cherniss make a compelling case for strengthening emotional intelligence as the key to achieving and maintaining an optimal state, and, in turn, boosting individual and organizational performance.

Summary

You can’t experience a “flow state” all the time, but you can aim for an “optimal state.”

Artists, athletes, surgeons, and entrepreneurs extol the experience of “flow”: a state of total focus, in which you become so engrossed in a task that time seems to speed up and performance feels effortless. In the pursuit of peak performance, many people seek to achieve a flow state — and they judge themselves harshly when they don’t. 

But flow is elusive, and some days you simply won’t be in the right frame of mind to perform tasks in a peak state. In contrast to the flow state, an “optimal” state means performing at your best in everyday circumstances. In an optimal state, you experience creativity, positivity, mental sharpness, high productivity, and a feeling of mutual support with others. An optimal state might not result in world-class performance, but it does lead to feelings of effectiveness, engagement, enjoyment, meaning, and satisfaction.

To achieve an optimal state, you need to exercise emotional intelligence (EI).

Emotional intelligence — a compendium of competencies such as “emotional balance, adaptability, empathy, and teamwork” — enables...

About the Authors

Psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman is the author of 13 books on psychology and leadership, including the seminal Emotional Intelligence. Cary Cherniss is Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology at Rutgers University and an author and consultant. Both serve as co-chairs of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.

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