Too much talk at work kills productivity. This is one of the findings from a recent study at Currys, the UK retailer, where the main distraction to productivity seen by over a fifth of workers (23%) was talkative colleagues. In his excellent new book Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg identifies three types of productive conversations. Here’s how they can become productive in a work context

Recently I explored the differences between IQ and EQ and suggested that EQ matters more than IQ for so many areas of life. I also revealed that Emotional Intelligence skills aren’t simply innate. In fact, with the correct stimulus and practice, any of us can improve our so-called ‘soft skills’. I happen to know this from personal exposure to Mygrow - a proven EQ development platform pioneered in South Africa a decade ago.

What’s more important for success – IQ or EQ? Do you need one or both; and what’s the right mix? There’s no doubt that leaders, managers and employees are all being judged by a new yardstick. Not just by how smart we are, our training qualifications or years of experience. Increasingly it’s about how well we handle ourselves and other people. Until quite recently people used to think intelligence was just about IQ.

Does it sometimes feel that your business is fuelled more by optimism than reality? Do your colleagues tell you that customers are happy or (as in the case of a business I once encountered) that ‘no one’s complained yet’? Without putting a damper on things, there’s a very effective exercise you can run to perform a reality check on a big customer or a strategic project. We called it ‘Why did we lose the client?